The Broken Wall
by Lady Librarian
Summary: To end the Daemon War, the children of the stars must go beyond the indigo veil to face the twilight doom of the Dark. All must be made whole, lest the two worlds be destroyed. Part V, the last installment of the Wallmaker's Saga.
1. Chapter 1: Grey Eyes

Hi everyone,

This is the fifth part of the Wallmaker Saga. I recommend you read the first four: (1) _Beyond the Indigo Veil_; (2) _Children of the Stars_; (3) _Twilight Doom_, and (4) _Daemon Wars_, before reading this part.

How am I doing, guys? Comments are much appreciated :)

As always, thanks for reading.**

* * *

The Broken Wall: Part V of the Wallmaker Saga**

**Chapter 1: Grey Eyes**

Sophie reached the top of the stairs just in time to watch her children sink out of sight in the arms of a daemon.

Dieter and Calcifer were just behind her, she could feel their magic like a great swell of pressure on her back. They had taken off after Nox as the star daemon went tearing upstairs for reasons unknown to them. However, his distress became eminently clear.

"NO!" The silver sorceress' scream echoed throughout the blackened room. Charged with raw magic, it caused the enchanted glass windows in the workshop to shatter. The Captain of the Wizard Guard lurched backwards into the safety of the doorway, fearful to enter the room and brave the witch's fury. Indeed even the fire daemon seemed hesitant, although Calcifer's eyes never left Sophie. The brown-eyed mother staggered forward as the wind tore through the room, snatching at her skirts. Wordlessly, she collapsed to her knees on the spot where she had last seen her son and daughter. The small witch gave a start as the snow-haired man appeared above her and placed a consoling hand on the crown of her head. She looked up at him incredulously, pushing away his hand as wrath and sorrow warred within her.

"You could have stopped them! Why did you let them go!" Sophie's words began in a whisper and ended in a shout that drowned out even the wind.

But Nox simply stared down at her with a gentle smile on his serene features. As always, it did nothing to help the situation. However, his attention suddenly shifted and the stranger stared off to the west. The composure he normally wore like a second skin seemed to slip. It was like he was listening to something far off in the distance. Apparently whatever it was caused him to remember something horrible he forgotten. Desolation dawned on his features. It lingered long enough to pinch his violet eyes with a grieved expression so foreign it aged the man hundreds if not thousands of years in a moment.

Not that the mother of the castle noticed or cared.

The Wallmaker's wife stumbled to her feet, turning to confront the fallen star as she raged at him. For the second time in the past few das, Sophie came unhinged, letting loose all her fear and frustration.

"What good are you to my family if you can't protect them! I thought you were here to help! You… You, Liar! LIAR!"

The silver sorceress reeled back her fist and let loose the blow only to have the velvet clad man-daemon catch her wrist in a movement so fast her eyes could not perceive it. His grip was gentle, but his hold strong as iron as the brown-eyed witch fought savagely to free herself. A different kind of wind ripped through the room as silver fire gathered in Sophie's eyes.

"Let her go!" Calcifer snarled as he streaked forward from the doorway. But Nox's extraordinary luminous eyes brought the living flame to a halt just as they pinned Dieter to the floor as he moved to enter the room.

Suddenly the wind ceased as the world around them seemed to slow.

In that moment, the elder star brought the Wallmaker's wife and best friend into a moment outside of time. Something passed between Nox and Calcifer. As the snow-haired man turned his eyes back to the dumbstruck witch, the amethyst corridors were ablaze with inner light.

"What did he do?" She asked in amazement, staring at the freckle-faced wizard's guard. Dieter was frozen mid-stride, his mouth open and hand outreached. Bits of paper and glass were suspended mid-air all around them. The complete stillness resulted in the most disconcerting silence.

"Nox brought us in between for a moment. He says we don't have enough time to do this properly, so he's improvising."

"What about my children?" Sophie pleaded, desperately casting her eyes from the bright orange spark to the fallen star. But Nox simply stared at her with that same exasperating sad smile that made the mother want to kick him right in the shins. It was not that she found the expression condescending, it was that she knew the star could speak and simply chose not to.

"Nox apologizes but says that he cannot stop Deirdre when she's with the other. He says they're too powerful," Calcifer translated quickly.

"I don't understand," Sophie grated through her teeth.

"When the kid and her daemon broke the black ribbon and forced the Wall to give back your life, it backlashed. The magic was so strong it forcefully merged Drie with her daemon. It's kinda like how fire sometimes makes two different metals melt together. But it also ripped a hole through the fabric of the worlds. Nox says the hole is like a door inside of both of them. Deirdre is linked to the green hills, just like the daemon is attached to the Dull Wall and the Dark."

"I thought they were trapped by Mrs. Danna's curse?" She replied in dismayed confusion.

"The daemon is bound to Mrs. Danna. But now it's also part of Deirdre and vice versa. It's a ruddy mess if you ask me! How do you magi always managed to muck things up so badly?" the living flame snapped irritably.

But Cal shot his attention back to Nox, who nodded gracefully as if giving his consent. The fire daemon continued to speak.

"A spirit that is touched by a human never really looses that mark. It's like Howl and me. We'll always be part of each other, in spite of the fact we're no longer tied to our bargain. Nox, on the other hand, forsake his human ties ages upon ages ago. He had to in order to stay in the otherworld without upsetting the Ancients."

"They don't like it when he meddles; they think it upsets the balance, which _it does_!" The fire daemon shot a nasty look at the elder star, showing a bit of tooth.

"But for the most part he's remained ambivalent to the troubles of mortals. However, every once and a while, he sticks his nose into things like the truce established back in the Mage Wars. But now…"

Calcifer crackled sadly, speaking in a sober voice Sophie very rarely heard the little flame use, "He says he is here for Deirdre, to protect her and the doorway inside her. But now he must make a choice."

Calcifer fluttered anxiously, fading an unhealthy looking teal. The living flame may have been talking about the elder star, but in a way, he was also referring to himself.

"Nox must decide who he will fight for in the war between mortals and ancients."

"What war?" Sophie exclaimed.

"The one that started when the idiot magi started banishing _all_ daemons to the scorched plains, not just the touched ones," Cal replied testily before continuing among curls of smoke.

"Ancients are just as averse to the mad ones as mortals are, but when humans start banishing the untouched, the elder spirits got irate. When mortals exile clean spirits beyond the Wall they unbalance the worlds. It weakens the green plains and that makes the black barrier brittle. If the magi keep this up, the Wall could break and let out the Dark. From what I gathered, the Mother Ancient of the Wastes gave us an ultimatum: either we piss off and leave her children alone, or all hell breaks loose."

"When did this happen?" The silver sorceress cried with incredulous anger.

"Last night," Cal replied nonchalantly.

"But that's not enough time! What do they expect us to be able to do overnight?" Sophie was thunder struck.

"Hey, don't shoot the messenger! You'd think spirits would get the more patient as they get older? Fat chance of that! They're as cranky as they are impatient. Ancients cannot even comprehend the concept of mortal time, let alone thinking an idea through. Perhaps after we're all dead they'll realize starting a war wasn't the best idea."

"Surely it won't come to that?" The Wallmaker's wife was dubious.

"Are you so sure?" The certainty in the living flames reply turned her blood to ice. "Daemons don't think, Sophie, they act. Remember, this world was theirs first and daemons have a long memory for grudges."

"But, there must be something we can do?" Sophie demanded fiercely.

"Ask Nox! I'm sick of playing his messenger boy!" Cal crackled nastily as he turned away. He, however, remained in the room.

In that moment the man-daemon finally let go of the brown-eyed witch's wrist. Suddenly, he placed his hands on her shoulders, fixing her with such an intense gaze she could not look away. The silver sorceress felt like the ground had disappeared from under her feet and that the world as she knew it would never be the same.

_Sophie_. His voice washed through her mind like the warm dawn light. _Find the children._

"How?" She whispered, trapped in the spell of the handsome man's violet eyes.

_The ring._ Nox replied simply.

Sophie gazed down at the enchanted band on her finger and she couldn't help but steal a glance at her wedding ring. Furious emotions surfaced within her as the sorceress turned her thoughts to her husband.

Again she was being forced to finish something he had started.

"How much time do we have?" She asked in a solemn voice full of iron resolve.

_None… _Nox's thoughts were a serene ribbon of indigo silk in her mind_. The War has already begun._

xXx

"Sophie? Dieter? Calcifer?" Barimus shouted madly up the stairs, but received no reply.

There had been some shouting a moment ago, but all was quiet now. Whether for good or bad, he did not know. Weakly, the red wizard was forced to sit on the landing as his wobbly knees gave out. There was no way he could make it up the stairs using his own legs, nor did he feel like he was capable of using magic to carry himself where he could not walk.

Begrudgingly, he acknowledged the fact he needed a cane.

"Are you alright, dearie?" Barimus snapped to attention only to realize Granny Witch was standing right in front of him, still knitting absently.

"No!" The handsome blond man growled in frustration. He then scrubbed his face in his hands before flashing a winning smile at the faded old woman. "Yes, Granny. I'm quite fine."

"Did you get the socks I sent you?" She asked with a doting sigh.

"Yes, Granny. Thank you very much. What's that you're working on?"

The Lord Councilor realized there was a long trail of yarn trailing after the former witch of the wastes, back to her chair next to the fire. It was then that the red wizard caught sight of the furry tail protruding from under dust-ruffle that hung from the seat of the old woman's chair.

"Heen! There you are!" Barimus cried triumphantly.

The chair jumped about an inch before the tail disappeared out of sight. But the former messenger dog of the Sorceress Suliman was not going to escape so easily. With great difficulty, the Wallmaker's brother stood and hobbled past the gooey-eyed old woman to the couch in front of the hearth. Sitting with crossed arms, the Royal Wizard stared moodily where Calcifer always sat. While he stared the old witch settled back into her chair, winding up into a ball the yarn she had led all over the living room.

"This is hard for me too, Heen," Barimus spoke after a while, "I know you want to be a dog now, but I'm afraid I need to ask you some very important questions. Will you help me?"

After a moment, the bedraggled creature poked his head from under the chair and cast a sidelong glance at the red wizard. With a curt wheeze that could only indicate assent, the dog emerged.

"There you are Heen." Granny Witch smiled and leaned down to pick up and deposit the fur-covered daemon in her lap. The sad-eyed critter wagged his tail half-heartedly as he gazed at his late mistress' student.

"I want to ask you about Earin Danna," Barimus nearly choked on the rage that rose within him over speaking aloud the name. Oblivious to the world, Granny began humming the same tuneless song Nox had earlier. Heen's tail stopped wagging the instant he heard the woman's name.

Was it possible for a dog to look so ominously severe?

"Suliman always lead me to believe that Earin was born magicless. But that's not true, is it?"

Heen shook his head from side to side, indicating no.

"She was apprenticed to a magus, wasn't she?" The blond man continued with difficulty.

Now the dog nodded yes.

"Who?" Barimus all but demanded.

Heen, however, regarded him rather ironically and wheezed sadly.

"Where's Calcifer when you need him?" The blond man grated impatiently and switched topics.

"What on earth would make her give up her magic?" The Royal Wizard could not comprehend trying to deny his gift. Magic had a way of making itself irrepressibly unavoidable.

Again the ironic look; it was disconcertingly human.

"Suliman must have been furious."

The dog shivered, as if remembering his mistress' wrath, and then nodded solemnly.

"They must have fought horrendously about that. I take it they weren't close at all?"

Heen began to nodded and then hesitated as if unsure of what to say.

"Nice doggy…" Granny witch mumbled happily and patted the creature on his head.

Heen stiffened, his hackles rising slightly as he growled at the ceiling. Suddenly, Calcifer shot down the stairs to the hearth with the harried Wizard's Guard in tow.

"Dieter, what happened?"

"They're gone, my Lord! One moment they were there, the next… gone!" The copper-haired twin was flabbergasted.

"Who?"

"Lady Sophie, the star, the children… All of them!"

"The daemon?" Barimus demanded fiercely.

"Gone as well, my Lord," Dieter was contrite and solemn. The emotions did not suite him.

"Where did they go?" The blond wizard turned to the living ember in the fireplace.

"The kids jumped ship so Sophie followed." Cal replied shortly. The flame's eyes were closed and apparently he was focusing his attention on something important. Turning vivid golden eyes to his bodyguard, Barimus issued a curt order.

"Dieter, go immediately to our King. Take the sky perambulator. Tell him he must postpone the sentencing of the daemon queen. The lives of the Wallmaker's children are at stake. Sophie and I will come later. Go, that's an order!"

The Royal Wizard snapped out the command and the freckle-faced man saluted smartly before dashing onto the veranda. Barimus watched him disappear before turning his attention back to the grate.

"Calcifer, what really happened?"

"If you hadn't noticed, I'm rather busy right now," the fire daemon crackled nastily, issuing plumes of sooty smoke. Indeed the ship was turning; the golden-eyed wizard could tell by the way the light was shifting in through the windows.

"Is Markl alright?" The Wallmaker's best friend suddenly asked in a small voice.

"I need you to ask Heen what happened at the time Danna gave up her magic!" The blond sorcerer demanded shortly, gruffly changing the subject rather incompetently.

"Bloody wizards! I'm not your slave and you can't order me about!" Cal swore viciously, flaring up red and black only to shrink to normal as the castle listed slightly, "What did you say?"

"Ask what happened," Barimus grated through his teeth. But Heen was already wheezing at the living flame, standing in the old woman's lap with his hackles up.

"Nice doggy," She muttered.

But Calcifer stared at the fur-covered daemon and then sputtered like a great wind had shaken him.

"Does Howl know this?" Cal shouted, spraying them with soot and embers.

"Cal!" Barimus snapped impatiently.

"Heen says he only knows a little and Suliman refused to talk about it. Danna was apprenticed to Councilor Raia; it was said she had a strong gift of foresight. All was well until she turned sixteen and was presented with her first seeing mirror; you know the huge rectangular ones that look like doors."

Indeed, Barimus did. He could picture the four huge rectangular glasses that the late Councilor Raia used to _see_ into the future. They were the exact size of doors, and even the frames seemed to suggest that the surface could swing outward at any moment. The mirrors had always given him fey chills, perhaps that why he had not discredited the fat old witch's prognostications as some of the other Councilor's had.

But Calcifer continued.

"Apparently Raia locked Earin in the room with it, a bit of an extreme teaching method if you ask me. When she emerged it had cracked. If she had magic, after that Danna refused to use it. After that Raia claimed she was a failure and sold off the mirror to some antique dealer from Tyrn. Suliman pitched a fit and demanded that her sister find another teacher, but Earin refused and joined the healer's guild. The Royal Sorceress almost outright disowned her after that. It was somewhat of a scandal for one of the Suliman family to be branded magicless. Shortly the old coot Raia came out with her infamous prophecy and all was forgotten in the wake of that mess. Apparently it wasn't a hereditary problem, because Danna's son was very talented."

"Danna had a son?" Barimus was shocked.

He had met Alistair Danna several times when he was still an apprentice. He had not realized until recently it was because the mage was married to his teacher's sister. Alistair was a magus of lesser power, but a good man. He did not know the magus had a son, nor did he know his teacher had a nephew. It was amazing how well secrets could be kept in the Capital.

"According to Heen, she does…" But here Calcifer paused and fell silent as the dog began to wheeze again, sadly this time, "Oh… Well, she _had_ a son."

"What do you mean _had_?"

"He died along side his father. The Wallbreaker killed them both when he took their magic to mend the Wall."

There was a long silence after that. Wearily, Heen jumped down from Granny Witch's lap. With his tail drooped so low it almost dragged on the ground, the dog slowly wandered under the curtains into the old woman's bedroom. Apparently he was done talking.

Calcifer, however, spoke up.

"Wait… A rectangular mirror with a crack that was sold to Tyrn… Why does that sound familiar to me? Hey? HEY? Where are you going?"

Barimus had stood and was hobbling down the steps to the front door.

"To find Howl," the red wizard called back at the fire daemon as he placed his hand on the front door.

"Fine!" The fire daemon snapped angrily, "Why don't all of you leave then? See if I care? I'll just fly this damned castle in circles over Market Chipping until it falls apart!"

The red wizard wasn't listening anymore. It took a great deal of concentration for him to discover the circle magic imbedded in the wood. Much to his surprise, the sorcerer found that the lines of magic had already been shifted twice to take the caster to his bedroom in the palace. The Royal Wizard was about to activate the circle magic for a third time when he realized to his abject disbelief that Suliman's stick was leaning against the wall next to him. It had not been there a second ago! Reaching out hesitantly, Barimus picked it up. It felt like a plain piece of wood in his hands, not at all full of dislike like it had a few times before. At least it made a good walking stick.

"Barimus? Hey! HEY? Barimus, wait! Do you hear that?" Calcifer sudden piped up anxiously from the grate.

"It sounds like bells," Granny witch mused absently.

Seconds later the circle on the door jumped to life with crimson fire and the golden-eyed man opened the door. As he did, a screaming fey wind erupted into the castle from the destruction that existed beyond the doorway. It was like someone had ripped the roof from the palace, exposing a boiling black sky overhead. Bits of smoke and spray gathered in the shattered hallway, collecting like the menacing nightmares that had come to haunt the daylight. The furious air elementals suddenly flooded around the red wizard, pulling at his clothes with sharp fingers and screaming in his mind.

"SHUT THE DOOR!" Calcifer thundered.

The fire daemon roared upwards like a bonfire in the kitchen hearth, filling the room with burning heat and black curls of smoke. Barimus slammed the end of Suliman's stick onto the ground and in a great rush of pressure; the spirits were forced from the castle.

A moment later the door slammed shut.

xXx

The townhouse crumbled like a house of cards as the earthquake caused the damaged part of Mrs. Danna's house to give.

Akarshan and Deirdre screamed as the attic room seemed to tumble down all around them. With an ear-splitting roar like some great living beast, the tremor caused the upper-half of the building to rock forward and toppled over. It spun it like a top. Unfazed by the chaos, Door yanked her siblings to her. Just as the beams of the ceiling plunged down to crush them, the chimera caught them. With inhumane strength, she reached up with one hand and held back the debris that crashed around them. The light and air were smothered to nothing as bricks, dust and mortar buried them. Moments after the quaking ceased, the daemon effortlessly threw off the shattered remnants of the roof like a blanket, exposing the devastation around them.

Barefoot and wearing a red sundress, Door hauled her dazed sister and brother out of the ruins that might have been their grave.

"Are you alright?" The half-human demanded with fierce concern as she sat them down in the street and attempted to dust them off.

"Earthquake…" Shan mumbled in shock as he clung numbly to his twin.

But Drie wasn't paying attention to either of them at that moment; her mind was fixed on their surroundings. The other row houses had fared far better than the one they had been inside. All were still standing and the terrified inhabitants clustered together in the middle of the street. The air was thick with dust and smoke, fire must have started elsewhere in the village. Distant shouts and screams could be heard as the rumbling remnants of the shaking ceased. However, the Wallmaker's daughter knew the source of the quake was still present. She could feel them, the presence of the earth golems rippled beneath her feet. It was as though she stood on a surface of a frozen pond whose surface had fractured and was threatening to break. And waiting beneath her were monsters with claws and teeth.

But there were others as well.

Through daemon eyes, Deirdre could see them, like the points of twisting light that danced on the green plains in the otherworld. But these spirits were not the curious playful beings she had encountered before. They clustered all around her with menacing thoughts, hiding in the alleyways and shadows of the gutters and clutter. As she stared in horror at them, they began pressing closer and closer as though they wished to stifle the life from her. Door must have sensed them as well, because she sniffed several times and bristled. As the silver-haired child-woman shrank back against her sister, the other issued a thrumming growl that vibrated deep from within her. The daemon suddenly let loose a grating snarl in the language of magic. The spirits stopped and then slowly shrank backwards, although they lost none of their rancor. Blinking her eyes, Drie stared with mortal sight at their surroundings only to see nothing.

"Why did they stop?" The blue-eyed girl whispered to Door. She reached out and took her sister's hand, lacing her fingers through the other's.

"Because I threatened to eat them if they came any closer," The daemon flashed her a toothy lopsided grin.

"Why did they break the house?" Akarshan suddenly demanded with incredulous horror, rousing from his previous stupor.

Door cast a cryptic look at Drie before rumbling again to the spirits in a voice like metal being torn in half. Suddenly the ground trembled again as half of the cobble stoned street tore itself up from the ground. The animated bricks leapt to life, towering up into a human-like shape half the size of one of the row houses. Its head swiveled with a dusty grating sound, turning to regarded them with empty baleful sockets filled with shadows. Further up the street some of the villagers saw the daemon and they screamed and scrambled away as fast as possible.

_Out of the wastes! Mortals must leave! _It boomed angrily the in their minds. However, its bellow was incomprehensible to mortal ears, sounding like the growl of a granite avalanche.

_Go home, brother earth, and take your kin with you! We will see to the mortals. _Door replied curtly, not at all frightened by the creature's display.

"W-what d-did he say?" Shan asked in a voice shaking with trepidation while simultaneously burning with curiosity.

"They want the humans to leave the wastes," Drie translated quickly.

Suddenly a sky kayak buzzed loudly overhead, trailing behind it the piercing clanging of one of the enchanted bells. They stared overhead as several more followed suit, filling the air with a cacophony of dissonant ringing. Again the golem hollered at the sky, put on edge by the unpleasant clanging. They circled overhead like a swarm of angry wasps waiting to strike. Suddenly a barrage of glass vials fell from above to shatter on the streets. The foul reek of agrimony choked the daemon kin. Door and the golem screeched in outraged terror, clambering backwards from the liquid as they scrambled to escape being spattered.

"Don't hurt my sisters!" Shan screamed at the sky perambulators overhead.

Drie grabbed the chimera by the back of her dress as the daemon started forward with a hiss. Both her attention and the golem's were fixed with predatorial singularityon the crafts in the air above.

"They're trying to help us!" The Wallmaker's daughter cried as she tried to calm the other. Immediately Shan joined in.

"Human fools, they understand nothing!" The daemon snarled irrationally. Door still fought forward, dragging along her siblings, oblivious to the fact the child-woman and her brother were attempting to hold her back.

Footsteps behind them suddenly snatched Deirdre's attention elsewhere. A troop of robin colored soldiers led by a man in red came clattering into the street. The hunting party arrived just as the golem reared back its arm and hurled a barrage of bricks into the fleet of milling ships in the air. Several clipped the sky kayaks, but one knocked off a rudder, sending the buzzing craft spiraling downwards. A cry of outrage issued from the Ingarian Wizard's guard at the same time that the bells the soldiers wore joined in the chaotic chorus. Door wheeled her attention around to the men just as the wizard whipped out a flashing mirror and shouted a word of power. With a silent cry of terror, the lingering spirits in the street disappeared.

With a screech of anguish, the doppelganger could only watch as the brick golem disintegrated into ash in the fire from the red circle that erupted from the ground beneath its feet. Much to her dismay, Drie watched as the chimera's hands coalesced into claws. Apparently the other's had regained her magic through the turmoil of her fury. Whipping around, Door howled wrathfully at the started wizard as the dreadfully familiar metallic chorus slowly seeped into her voice. With it came the horrible stench of the Dark. The group of soldiers froze; stunned to hear the bells continue to ring.

"Door!" Deirdre screeched.

She dropped Akarshan and seized a hold of the creature, but her other was beyond reasoning. The daemon savagely twisted in the tall woman's grasp until it tore itself free and slashed blindly at the child-woman. Drie stumbled backwards and fell to the ground next to her brother. The other's obsidian talons cut through the skin on her cheek, but the mark did not bleed. With a truncated gasp, Door shuddered as a twin mark appeared on her face. The pain apparently drew the chimera out of her madness because she blinked her black eyes to stare down in horror at the child-woman.

"I… I'm sorry!" Door stammered in wild consternation as she reached for her other half. But Drie shrank from her in fear.

However, her twin brother did not.

The little boy flew to his feet in a rage, storming forward to yell at the tainted half-daemon. "You hurt Dreiddy! You stay away from her!"

The chimera stumbled backwards from the raven-haired boy's fury. Grieved and brokenhearted, the daemon reached for him remorsefully, her very being brimming with uncertain anguish.

"Brother?" She whispered.

But the Wallmaker's son shunned her touch and pulled away, shaking his little fists at her.

"Go away, Door! You're a bad daemon! I hate you!" He shouted.

"Akarshan!" Deirdre exclaimed in astonishment, finally roused from her shock.

Had the boy's words been a knife, they would have stabbed the half-human's heart. Indeed she straightened and staggered backwards as though she had been struck, trembling violently. The chimera seemed to be crushed under the weight of her despair. Where once she had been so strong the fragile being appeared to be at her breaking point. She sagged visibly and retreated within herself. As Door bowed her head, her face disappeared under her short silver hair. The motion was so similar to a posture that his father made when he was upset that Akarshan immediately regretted his words.

"I didn't mean it!" The six-year-old wailed contritely, but it was too late.

A red circle burst to life beneath the other's feet as the wizard guard at the head of the party recovered his wits and acted. Door shuddered violently and the fire beneath her flickered and extinguished, just as it had so many times before. However, when she shook herself, it was like a stranger lived within the other's body. Suddenly, the daemon chuckled darkly and even her voice was not her own. Deirdre felt like she had been doused with ice water as she recognized the laugh.

The chimera straightened to stare at the Wallmaker's children with cold grey eyes that were hard as ice.


	2. Chapter 2: Understanding

**The Broken Wall: Part V of the Wallmaker Saga**

**Chapter 2: Understanding**

In spite of the horrific damage induced by the funnel cloud, the finger of sky never truly touched down.

It quickly retreated into the thick black clouds that twisted over the city's capital. However, the persistent windstorm outside still tore roofs from buildings and shattered windows with flying debris. But the true havoc was wreaked in the city by the air elementals that remained in the aftermath of the whirlwind. They were a lingering form of devastation unto themselves. The royal air fleet was grounded and people remained trapped in their homes. Anyone that went outside risked their lives to the wrath of the wind spirits' teeth and claws.

"Why haven't they come inside?" Martha whispered fiercely.

The herbalist stood in the hallways just outside the room where Markl had once lain asleep, her arms wrapped around her apprentice. Theresa was clinging to the green-eyed woman, her freckled face buried in the cotton shirt the healer always wore. The Wallmaker had pulled them all to safety in the chaos that that rushed in around them as the twister tore away the side of the building. The door rattled madly in the constantly howling wind outside and the hedge witch's hair was stirring wildly about her face in the drafts that pushed around the barrier. Overhead, through the magically reinforced skylights, Howl could see the milling ethereal bodies of hundreds of mist daemons. The dark haired woman did not have the othersight to see the creatures, but she had no trouble hearing their distant moans and screeching.

"I don't know," the thin man replied shortly as he stood, helping his eldest son to his feet.

Markl was awake, compliant, but unresponsive. Currently the boy was staring madly at the skylight overhead. His father did not like the blank expression on the young wizard's white face. But they were all severely rattled by the outcome of recent events. His apprentice was barefoot and wearing only a long nightshirt. They would have to find him some clothes. Howl quickly stripped off his great sleeved coat and wrapped it around the young man's shoulders.

"Why are they here?" Martha demanded in a furious voice. It was strange for the silent woman to speak so much.

"I don't know," the thin man lied smoothly.

He did indeed know why the angry spirits had invaded the capital of Ingary. However, he was just as shocked by the swiftness of their unannounced attack. Howl had not expected it to come to this with no warning, nor did he realize he had so little time. Something must have provoked the ancients, inciting them into action. But that was far from his most pressing concern. Currently, the raven-haired sorcerer was attempting to get his russet-haired apprentice to look at him.

"Markl! Markl, can you hear me?" The Wallmaker shook the boy gently by the shoulders.

"Stop!" The sallow woman commanded and dumbly the Wallmaker complied, "Give him to me…"

Detangled herself from Theresa, Martha peered sharply into the young wizard's eyes, snapping in his face and moving a single finger back and forth in front of his eyes. The curly haired young woman furtively wedged herself behind the Wallmaker's apprentice, careful not to incur her mistress' ire. But Markl neither blinked nor flinched, nor did he notice the girl's closeness. The herbalist finished by checking the boy's temperature and made an ominous noise.

"He's in shock," she diagnosed coldly. "We need to get him warm."

"Will he be alright?" It was the keeper of the balance's turn to ask questions fretfully.

"With time, yes," Martha replied shortly. The healer forced the green-eyed girl to look at her, "Theresa, do you remember where the supply cabinet is on this level?"

"Y-yes," the curly haired girl stammered, although she was constantly flicking her eyes about nervously.

"Blankets, clothes, smelling-salts," the hedge witch ordered briskly. The Royal Wizard's wife stepped back. In a single fluid motion, she plucked up the girl's garden hoe only to force it into Theresa's hand before pointing sharply down the hall. When the girl hesitated, seeming loath to leave Markl behind, Martha gave her apprentice a jump-start by gently pushing her in the correct direction.

"I have to get back to Market Chipping," Howl murmured in a lost voice as he turned away.

"You will stay, Wizard Howl!" Martha thundered mercilessly, rounding on him with blazing jade eyes. The Wallmaker jumped and actually shrank back against the side of the hallway in abject surprise. Barimus wife had the ability to be quite terrifying when she wished to be.

"But… Sophie and the children?" The silver sorceress' husband was stunned.

"Sophie is capable of far more than you give her credit for. Now, deal with the daemons before they tear us all to shreds!"

"How?" He retorted lamely.

"Fix the shield!" The herbalist snapped at him impatiently, "You are the Wallmaker, aren't you?"

It was strange; because in addition to finding his son, that was the reason Howl had come to the Capital today. He would have to find as many Councilors as possible and their apprentices too. And the wizard's guards would be needed as well. There would be no time for a test: it would either work or it would not. Early that morning, before he had fallen asleep in his bath, the lanky wizard had an idea.

It involved light bulbs.

xXx

Markl could hear their voices still, and it made him want to scream.

There were hundreds if not thousands of them, all whispering incomprehensibly in the tiny space between his ears. He felt like his head was about to burst. Suddenly, hands were on him and something fouler than the stink of Dark wafted under his nose. His eyes were open all of a sudden and he could see again. Where once he could not fight, now somehow his faculties had returned to him. So he began to struggle.

"Careful, he's coming out of it," A familiar stoic voice spoke.

"Markl? Markl, can you hear me?"

The russet-haired boy opened his eyes and once more the light flooded them to blindness. Blinking rapidly, a heart shaped face covered in freckles resolved out of the brightness. As he recognized the herbalist's apprentice, he realized she was possibly the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

"Theresa!" He gasped and tried to stand.

"Shhh, we're here. Be still," the red-head replied soothingly, her hands on his shoulders. The brown-eyed young wizard realized he was wrapped in a blanket, reclined against a wall in a hallway somewhere. All around him were other voices speaking in terse hushed tones and for a moment the Wallmaker's apprentice thought the daemons had come back.

"Make them stay away!" He half shrieked as strange faces swam before him, pressing close and towering all around. Markl yanked the girl into his arms in a moment of mad panic as he stumbled to his feet. The girl squeaked in surprise as he half crushed the air out of her lungs. The young man might be thin, but he was quite strong.

"Oi! All of you get back!" Theresa commanded between coughs as she tried to regain her breath. Immediately, the strangers wearing green retreated.

"Thank you… Thank you…" the Wallmaker's apprentice stammered, still clutching the girl to him. He relaxed against the hallway wall as the red-head returned his embrace.

"It's alright, Markl. Everything's okay now." Another calm voice spoke to his right.

It was the herbalist. He blinked rapidly, trying to clear his senses, which still swam before his eyes form time to time. It was not the first time he had gone into the beyond, but the aftermath was just as difficult. Mortal sight was disorienting; between the worlds, where he had been taken, everything merged into a remarkable singularity. It was strange to have to separately reintegrate everything after experiencing things with such simultaneous clarity. But the dam holding back the words within him had already been breeched, and they issued forth unbidden.

"Everything is not alright, Aunt Martha. They're everywhere! I can hear them, they're everywhere," Markl murmured madly, casting his attention to the glass ceiling above him.

But suddenly he turned back to regard her with fierce look. Martha was taken aback by the intense gleam in her nephew's eyes as he continued in a rush.

"I'm so glad I was wrong! I misread the prophecy. I thought you were the childless green mother. I thought it meant you were going to die, but I was wrong. None of it made any sense until they took me back to see what happened. But it makes sense now… I understand."

A particularly loud wailing filtered down from above and the sound of claws on glass sent a titter of panic through the other healers. The auburn haired sorcerer threw his eyes towards the glass ceiling with a strained expression of terror on his face.

"SHUT UP! Make them shut up!" He shouted madly at the skylights.

"I think you should let Theresa go now, Markl," Martha spoke carefully as she reached towards him with her open hands upturned. But the golden-eyed boy shied back, sideling along the wall away from her. The herbalist may have been afraid for her apprentice, but the freckle-faced girl was not.

"It's alright, Lady Martha," Theresa replied calmly with a backwards glance at her teacher.

"Who, Markl? Who took to back?" The red-head asked as she returned her full attention to the thin boy in her arms.

"The star daemons; it was like when Sophie first went into the otherworld to break Howl's curse. But this time they showed me Mrs. Danna's past," he replied absently, stumbling along with his friend until they backed into a corner. It was then that the russet-haired young wizard caught sight of the pink and grey checkered coat cast aside in the hallway. He nearly jumped out of his skin upon seeing it.

"Howl is here? Where is he? We need to get back to the castle right away!"

xXx

Much to her surprise, Earin was relieved to be not dead.

However, it finally convinced her without the shadow of a doubt that she was right.

A moment later the earthquake rocked the airship. The ground-shattering tremor caused one of the support legs to give as a huge column of rock exploded from the ground, impaling one of the metal wings and half overturning the craft. The enormous ship tilted dangerously to the side and Danna would have gone sliding off the edge had she not been chained in place. Kings and soldier's spilled everywhere as great clods of dirt and glass pelted the deck. Finally, as the daemons rushed all around them the former healer finally understood why the banishing spell had dissolved. The ancients must have stopped it when they sapped up all the surrounding magic in the wastes to induce the earthquake. It reduced all of the local magi powerless and their incredulous cries echoed loudly off the airships.

Luckily for her, it had also negated the gate to the scorched plains.

Suddenly all manner of spirits erupted into being all around them. Earth daemons, made of churning mud and loam, burst from the ground to hurl granite boulders at the now scrambling flightless wizards. Wailing air elementals chased the pilots of sky kayaks as plant daemons caused living roots to burst from the wooden floor, harrying the sorcerers that circled her. Sirens and the screams of men and daemons alike filled the slanted deck; however, none approached her. Ferdinand, with a rallying call, pulled two pistols from his boot and handed its twin to Prince Justin.

"Have at them!" The emperor cried in excitement.

"I've never held a gun before!" Justin cried in dismay.

"Give it here!" Walden muttered as he threw aside his crown and bulky robes to shoot with expert accuracy at the mud spirits that were clambering closer to them.

However, in spite of the fact that both kings were keen shots, their marks never seemed unfazed by the bullets that hit them. However, the spirits did not stop until they came up against something like an invisible wall. It was like there was a circle surrounding the former daemon queen that the beings were loath to cross. They clambered along the borderline, shrieking in frustration. It was into this haven that the Kings and their bodyguards scrambled at an angle. Dieter suddenly stiffened as he stopped to reload the pistol handed to him by a solider, and the freckled man swayed. The twin would have fallen had Walden not caught his elbow.

"Are you alright?" The boy-king asked earnestly.

"Thank you, King Walden," Dieter murmured respectfully before straightening, "Your majesties, I have received new from the capital! Peoter informs me a tornado just hit Kingsbury and a tidal surge has flooded Porthaven."

"What about Marda?" Justin demanded.

"And Tyrn," Walden followed suite.

"I am sorry, your Majesties… I know not," Dieter replied with a pained expression.

"We need to get inside where we're less exposed. This is a tactically hopeless situation," Ferdinand growled, pulling fiercely at his moustache as he slung his smoking gun over his shoulder.

"Captain, why do they stop?" One of the wizard's guards grimaced, staring at the milling daemons in aversion.

"Because of me," Earin spoke up suddenly, her icy voice calculated, giving all present a fright. The cold eyed woman was sprawled against the decks like a limp doll, pinned in place by her shackles. "These are young daemons, not the elder kin. They're terrified of me and will flee if I approach, even the ones in the air. I can help you, Ferdinand."

"Don't trust her, Majesties!" Dieter spat venomously, "She'll just try to escape. We should leave her here for the spirits."

"You and I don't seem to be going anywhere right now, little wizard," Danna's words were as contemptuous as they were cool. "I couldn't run even if I tried. Besides, don't you remember what your _Lord Barimus _said, Captain? This is a life and death matter for both you and the Wallmaker's children."

"Magic isn't the only way to get rid of someone…" Ferdinand spoke frostily as he cocked his pistol and pointed the barrel at the collapsed woman's head.

"I don't believe you, Freddy," the regal faced woman regarded him with a cunning smile, "You need me."

After a terse moment, the ruler of Ingary let out a furious snarl and turned away as he uncocked his gun.

"Get her up off the floor, but keep her in chains and irons," The ruddy-bearded man barked out the orders. They all ducked as a screaming twist of mist went sailing low overhead, but veered away at the last second. A pair of soldiers unlocked the shackles that held her to the ground as they yanked Danna to her feet, leaning away from her as though they were disgusted to touch her. The robin uniformed guards handed her chains to King Ferdinand.

"Is this wise?" Prince Justin sniffed delicately.

"What other choices do we have?" Walden replied solemnly.

Ferdinand motioned Danna forward his with revolver, "Ladies first!"

True to her word, the daemons parted before the former healer, falling back in droves. The thin tattered woman made slow progress back across the slanted deck of the ship, and she stumbled numerous times. By the time they reached the entrance to the lower levels, Earin could no longer walk. She collapsed in exhaustion on the top step.

"Get up," the barrel-chested Ingarian barked.

"You can shoot me now if you like, Freddy," Danna sighed with infinite sureness he would not, "But I can't walk another step."

After a tense moment when they realized she wasn't joking, King Ferdinand scooped her up and carried Suliman's sister down the rest of the stairs.

"Such a gentleman…" She mumbled.

"Speak again and I _will_ shoot you!" The ruddy faced man bite off his words like they were choking him.

The moment they entered the King's office, he threw the broken grey eyed woman into a nearby chair.

"Chain her up!" Ferdinand commanded without a second look. Two of the red garbed guards fastened her chains to the thick wood of the chair. The bristle-mustached King strode forward to his desk, and beckoned to both Justin and Walden.

"Dieter, what's the situation in Market Chipping?" The golden prince asked as the boy-king unrolled the maps.

Their voices faded into nothing as the cold woman's eyes fell on a small box that rested on top of the emperor's desk. Inside was the silver knife they had taken from her that morning. In that very same moment, Danna almost gasped as the invisible line beneath where her heart should have been suddenly snapped back to life. Somehow, whatever spell the Wallmaker had placed on her daemon had faded. As the former daemon queen gently probed the connection between her and the other, she paused. It was strange; somehow Door had retreated so far inside of herself she was barely present. The chimera was normally viciously possessive of her consciousness, so it was unlike her to leave herself so vulnerable. Here, in her weakest moment and darkest hour, was a perfect opportunity for her to assume control of the other, both her body and her magic.

Ironically, she reflected on the fact that fate had again proved her right.

And so she took hold of the invisible line with her mind and pulled with all her might. Through the daemon's eyes she saw the red circle. Danna was forced to think quickly to negate the magic before her only hope of escape was banished where she would be forced to follow. As she tapped into the daemon's power strength flooded her. The moment it did, all the bells in the room began clanging ominously. Not that it mattered; the magi in the room had been drained of magic.

They were powerless before her.

As she stood the grey-eyed woman ripped the heavy wood chair apart. Even the iron shackles that held her wrists and ankles wrenched to pieces under her might. The room descended into a chaos of shouting as the soldiers fired their rifles at her. But Danna simply assumed Door's liquid form and the bullets passed harmlessly through her as she strode forward. The one called Dieter tore a small mirror from his pocket and a handful of glass ampoules from the other. But he faltered, realizing he could not use the mirror without harming the Wallmaker's children. His moment of hesitation gave the cold woman enough time to snatch him up in her claws and viciously hurl him at the far wall. The wood splintered as he hit. Unfortunately for her, the wizard dropped the glass vials before she cast him aside, and they shattered at her feet.

Danna screamed as the agrimony spattered her legs and green smoke started up from the places where the liquid burned her flesh. She lashed out at random in her pain, cutting several men and women in two with obsidian talons. The blood felt hot on her hands, and only served to frenzy her further. There were disadvantages to daemon magic, it did not lend to clear thinking.

Abruptly, the door behind her suddenly flew open as a strange man wearing a red Wizard's Guard uniform entered.

"Seran!" One of the lame wizards cried.

He was young and old at the same time, his youthful face creased with premature age lines and his blond hair peppered with grey. The new arrival took in the room with a single glance and fearlessly he stalked forward with outstretched hands. Startled, Danna flung a handful of black fire in his direction. To her absolute consternation, the man absorbed it like it was nothing. But then he was on her and had snatched a hold of one of her wrists. The former healer screeched as she felt the life drain from her; as she watched the skin of her hand desicated in the same manner wet paper falls to dust in the desert. It was like a piece of the Dull Wall had lodged in the man, and the horrible curse on the mortal attempted to devour her whole. With inhuman strength, she finally managed to wrench herself free. Danna blurred backwards among the magi and smashed the box on Ferdinand's desk, fishing the silver knife out of the splinters. It burned in her hand and again she swallowed a screech as she clenched it in her grasp.

A rasping click brought Earin back to her senses.

She threw her eyes to the side only to stare straight over the barrel of the gun held in King Walden's hands. Ferdinand had grabbed hold of Justin, hauling the golden man out of harms way as the tattered woman rushed forward towards them. The Mardan prince had reached for the young ruler of Tyrn, but the boy-king was beyond his grasp. Confronted by the daemon queen, the young ruler's hand was shaking and his face was haggard. However, his green eyes were steady and full of steel. This time she didn't have time to speak as the young man swallowed and fired. The bullet hit her square in the chest, right where her heart should have been. Harmlessly, it passed through the hollowness there. Danna staggered backwards and was stunned to realize she wasn't injured, nor could she be as long as she had her daemon. With a long slow smile, Earin Danna summoned a portal and sank out of sight.

Moments later another earthquake shuddered through the wastes into Market Chipping.

xXx

Honey screeched and shrank back into the large pantry.

"It's back!" Mr. Hausa cried.

The short bald man peered curiously around the doorway. But his blonde wife dragged her fat husband backwards as her as the mud golem once again began battering the kitchen doorway. The widowed Hatter had gone to her daughter's restaurant for brunch as she always did on summer Sundays. But today the world seemed to come unhinged. As if the earthquake hadn't been bad enough, monsters made of filth and dust had torn from Market Chippings streets only to go wandering about like living mud puddles. The spirits went about terrifying the village's occupants.

Cecari's café was a battleground.

Living columns of water had erupted from the sink drains, which were now currently plugged with cheese. Invisible winds had flown down the chimney to scatter soot about the tidy kitchen before the flue had been closed. The sightless beings went screaming about the rafters and Lettie had declared war on the spirits after they overturned a wedding cake she had spent ages decorating. Somehow the blue eyed woman had managed to save it from the tremor that previously rattled the building down to its very foundations. But her victory was short lived as a flock of misty vapor lifted it from the counter and hurled it across the room. With flames in her eyes that matched the burning brands she had seized from the hearth, the Hatter's middle daughter had chased the mist spirits out a large window under threat of fire.

The caterer now wore a copper pot like a helmet and had slung a great wooden spoon through her apron waistband like a sword. Her daughters were similarly armed with colanders and great spit forks. They were just as audacious as their step-grandfather, clambering at the mouth of the pantry to watch their parents. Lettie and her husband had climbed up onto the huge sturdy shelves that crowned the entire kitchen. Currently, they held a kettle of boiling water between them with mitted hands. With a splintering shudder, the mud daemon finally forced its way through the wooden door with a gurgling moan. In the distance there were shouts and the sounds of smashing plate ware as the staff in different parts of the building battled with their own daemons.

"NOW!" The caterer crowed triumphantly and the baker and his wife doused the golem with the scalding water.

With a truncated yelp akin to the squeal of a pig, the earth spirit disintegrated into a pile of muck.

"HA! Take that you muddy brute! That will teach you to invade a woman's kitchen!" The cake queen shrilled as she dropped her side of the cauldron and jumped down from on high to stomp madly in the mud puddle.

"Yay! Mommy and daddy beat the monster!" Tilly and Milly shouted from their cupboard in unison as their youngest sister sucked its thumb nonchalantly.

"Lettie! Be careful," the baker cried. He dropped the kettle which gave a resounding clang as the large man tumbled down to yank his wife out of the muck.

"Put me down, Alex!" Lettie screeched furiously as she kicked in his grasp, "It took me a week to ice that cake! I want to grind at least one of them under my boot!"

The caterer hushed abruptly as the mud puddle surged upwards and split in two, reaching for them with shapeless seeking tendrils. Without a second thought, the baker and his wife retreated to the stove and began hurling anything and everything on the prep-tables at the pair of daemons. Spoons and sauciers went flying alongside a pan full of fresh baked blueberry muffins. Apparently the daemons had a taste for short breads because the halted in their attack to pluck up the breakfast products. With unfettered greed, the golems shoved the muffins into gaping holes that perforated their heads. The once bellicose sludge settled in place, making contented grunts as they snacked.

"They like muffins!" Alex cried incredulously.

"Quick! Get the cookies!" Lettie commanded as she pointed at her daughters with a spoon. The two earth elementals were suddenly joined by three more. The spirits trudged slowly into the room issuing curious moans only to settle next to their brethren and join in the feast. Soon the caterer and her brood were madly ferrying baked products in a desperate attempted to appease their assailants.

"What gluttony!" Honey huffed hotly from the pantry as she regarded the creatures over her husband's shiny pate.

"There goes afternoon tea," Mr. Hausa sighed glumly.

The éclairs were particularly effective, and the mud daemons began gurgling excitedly as they the devoured on pastries. Unfortunately, the supply of that product was quickly exhausted and there were not enough to go around. As such, two of creatures began squabbling with one another over the last pastry as the others turned their attention back to the baker and his wife. The golems shuddered upwards and reached towards them with entreating limbs, making hungry moans as they oozed forward.

"We're out of éclairs!" Lettie cried in a shrill voice, proffering a pan of cheese Danishes. The elementals inspected these for a moment and then promptly pushed them aside, their grunts and gurgled becoming more demanding. The five creatures loomed upwards and came for them.

"Run!" Alex barked as he swept his blonde wife behind him, barring the spirits' way by dragging a huge wooden table into the aisle.

"Out the back!" Lettie shouted at her mother as she dashed to the pantry and pointed wildly at the second archway in the huge kitchen. Scooped up her youngest with one arm, she pushed Milly and Tilly at their grandparents, "Take the girls!"

"Mommy!" The little girls screamed piercingly, shrinking back against her skirts as the archway that had been their escape route began rattling. Mud oozed beneath the door as geysers of multicolored water erupted out of the sinks back in the kitchen, showering them with runny cheese.

In that moment, one of the ceiling length windows that lined the far wall burst open, flooding the room with wind as an enormous bird tucked in its wings and passed inside. Feathers the color of steel whisked about the room in the gale as Sophie cast off her bird form and landed unceremoniously on one of the prep-tables. The daemon's turned their attention to the silver sorceress as she straightening briskly, tossing her braid over her shoulder as bright white fire ignited in her eyes.

"_OUT!_" Sophie commanded.

Her voice echoed physically in the great stone kitchen. As though they were pushed by thousands of invisible hands, the mud daemons were dragged from the room by an enormous pulse of magic. The shambles of the main door flew closed, becoming whole once more. The silver sorceress had donned her feathers and flown from the castle guided to her children by the ring on her finger when she had watched in horror as the first wave of daemons washed through the city. Without thinking, she had detoured sharply to seek out her family in the once quiet village that was now drowned in pandemonium.

"Are you alright?" The Hatter's eldest daughter asked, her face pinched with concern as she jumped down from the table. Stunned into silence, her adult family could only stare at her. Her nieces, however, were too excited not to speak.

"Auntie's a bird! A great big bird!" Tilly cried in amazement and then began flapping her arms.

"So's our cousin Deirdre!" Milly informed her in a bossy voice much like her mother's.

At that exact moment another earthquake ripped through the village.

Amidst the screams of the children, the stone walls protested with grating groans as they bent and swayed dangerously. In spite of the fact that this quake was shorter and less potent, the huge wooden chandelier tore free of the ceiling. Already weakened by the first tremor, it came crashing down above the witch with an escort of rubble and mortar. With a great explosion of shimmering magnesium star fire, a projectile of light collided with the falling structure, hurling it against the far wall where it crumbled into ash and fire with a resounding boom. Snatching up a bucket of water, Sophie scrambled forward. She threw the contents of the bucket to douse the flames only to watch in dismay as the fire collected itself and surged upwards into the star-daemon's familiar form. In a motion that blurred before her eyes, Nox threw up a hand and the water froze mid air. The droplets of ice clattered around him like a handful of diamonds.

"Sophie!" Lettie exclaimed as she recovered from her shock to rush forward out of her husband's grip. The blond woman seized her stunned sister by the shoulders and shook her, "What the hell is going on?"

"Momma swore!" Tilly cried in astonishment as she clamped her hands over her sister's ears. Both little girls squeaked and retreated behind their father as the tall star moved forward to the silver sorceress' side. Lettie silenced immediately turning as pink as her dress as she gaped dumbly up at the velvet cloaked man.

"Who the bloody hell is this?" The blue-eyed woman huffed hotly, planting her hands on her hips as she found her voice once again. But the man daemon had eyes only for the Wallmaker's wife and the caterer did not like the way the stranger was looking at her _married_ sister. Lettie's voice drew the silver-haired witch out of her stupor and the sorceress immediate sprang into action.

"You're going to the castle, all of you. The village is under attack by daemons and it is not safe here," Sophie explained rather uselessly.

"But why?" Mr. Hausa piped, his diminutive form lost among his grandchildren and son-in-law. The silver sorceress had no easy answer for that, so she did not reply as she quickly strode to the front door of the kitchen.

"Don't go out there, Sophie! The monsters!" Honey cried warningly as she rushed past her family to seize hold of the brown-eyed witch.

"Don't worry, mother. We're not going outside," The silver haired woman smiled calmly, disentangling her step-mother's hands from around her neck.

"I need some chalk," the sorceress announced as though it were the simplest request in the world.

She looked a bit crestfallen as once again her family stared at her blankly.

"Here, Auntie!" Milly smiled brightly as she scampered forward. Fishing in her pocket she pulled out a piece of blue chalk and handed it to the witch.

"Why thank you, Milly." The sorceress beamed at her niece.

Her errand finished the little girl stared curiously up at the star, who smiled down at her warmly. Lettie, suspicion plain on her features, pulled her mother and daughter backwards away from the stranger.

"You still haven't told us what's going on, Sophie!" Lettie continued querulously.

_The children! _The snow-haired man insisted anxiously. His golden toned voice echoed through Sophie's mind, completely ignoring the nasty look her sister shot him.

Sophie nodded at him absently as she waved off her sister, feeling as though she would fly to bits at any moment. It was an impossible feeling, being forced to choose between what she knew she must do and her mad compulsion to protect her family. This is what Howl must feel everyday, the Wallmaker's wife reflected sardonically as she felt her anger for the lanky wizard melt slightly.

But that didn't excuse him from keeping secrets.

She pushed those thoughts aside as she drew a circle on the door. Sophie stared at it uncertainly realizing she had no idea what to do next. Seized by an odd impulse, she drew a rough sketch of the castle inside the shape and cast an unsure look over her shoulder at the star daemon. Nox smiled at her wryly and nodded in approval. The silver sorceress knocked on the surface three times and the image flickered to life, shining with cerulean fire.

To her absolute surprise, Barimus answered the door.


	3. Chapter 3: The Lost

**The Broken Wall: Part V of the Wallmaker Saga**

**Chapter 3: The Lost**

"Run!" The silver-haired child-woman screamed madly at the cluster of wizards and soldiers.

But her voice failed as Deirdre was assaulted by a series of ghost blows and horribly painful sensations. Her legs burned as though they were on fire and she screamed madly as a horrific sensation akin to the hunger of the Dull Wall latched onto her arm. The mad relief she experienced as it subsided was fleeting when she felt something pierce her chest and knew full and well nothing had. Still, she choked and put her hand in shock to the wound that was not there. Door moaned and wailed as she followed suite, thrashing in agony only to collapse to one knee not far from her twin.

"Dreiddy, what's wrong?" Shan cried in panic.

"Don't touch me… I don't want to hurt you, stay back…" Drie gasped lamely.

"Sister, sister, sister!" The raven-haired child chanted aloud anxiously like a spell, reaching for her insistently.

She tried unsuccessfully to scramble away from the hovering little boy, but by that time the pain subsided. Akarshan seized a hold of her, both seeking comfort as much as he wished to give it. Indeed, the twins clung to each other in horror as a burst of otherwind battered them.

As a portal like the mouth of hell ripped open on the ground, Mrs. Danna rose up through the gate.

The Wallmaker's children shrunk from her in terror as her emotionless grey eyes settled on them. Suddenly, the misty plumes of their breath were bright in the air. As she appeared, winter seemed to spread through the streets in spite of the bright summer sun overhead. Black ice caked the cobblestones as the daemon queen towered over the chimera's prone form. Slowly at first, the yellow fire crept back under the former healer's thin skin, and with it came the familiar reek of the madness beyond the Wall. In her hand, hissing like it was loath to be in contact with the woman, was a silver knife. For some reason the sight of it made Deirdre light-headed with dread.

The bells silenced once again as a second wave of daemons came crashing over them.

Like an avalanche rushing down from the huge mountains above the village, the spirits ushered with them another earthquake. The shouts and cries of the soldiers were lost in the roar of the quake. But Danna stabbed the knife at the deluge and the vibrant elementals split around them. In a mad chorus that sounded like the end of the world, the spirits wailed and screeched as the buildings around them trembled. The earth spirits tore up the ground, hurling about great boulders and clouts of dirt as they were buffeted by winds powerful enough to flatten the city. Boiling water exploded from the street gutters, running against the laws of sanity up the side of the row hours only to pour like great spears in the air. Gouts of flame spurted from the street lamps, crawling down the posts like living creatures.

With a savage laugh, Mrs. Danna mocked the futile efforts of the children of the ancients as the area around the Dark touched mortal remained unaffected.

"Get up, Door!" The former healer commanded and the chimera stood immediately, her colorless eyes blank as a puppet's.

"Let her go," Deirdre snarled.

The child-woman's eyes went black as a moonless midnight sky, suddenly made fearless by her love for the other. As the silver-haired girl shot to her feet with Akarshan in her arms, her former captor brought the knife to the other's throat. The blade hissed as it met the daemon's skin; both Danna and Drie winced as identical burns appeared on their necks.

"Or what?" The woman of ice and fire barked scornfully, negligent to the chaos around her, "You can't harm me, lest you harm yourself."

"Door! Can you hear me? Give her heart back, you don't need it!" Deirdre shouted at the other with wild desperation.

"She can't hear you, little one," Danna replied icily, although her grey eyes were gleaming dangerously. "She serves her purpose, just like we all must. Look around you; this is the end of all things. The balance is broken and soon even the Dull Wall will crumble."

"This is your fault! You did this!" Akarshan shouted at the daemon queen as he shook his fists at her, forgetting his fear in much the same way his sister had.

"Silence, boy!" The daemon queen's voice split the chaos like a lightening strike as yellow black fire began seeping from her eyes. As she spoke her voice literally dripped with hatred, "Do not speak to me of blame; by your hand the world will end!"

As she spoke, Danna pointed the knife at Door, acknowledging the daemon's former incarnation, "You know nothing! I saw this Doom through that mirror with my own eyes ages ago; if I were not here another would stand in my place!"

Suddenly the former healer's voice twisted, torn ragged by the sharp barbs of endless misery and self condemnation. "My son… My husband… They died because I was too afraid to do what I must. _I knew_ what was going to happen and I tried to block it from my mind. I was a fool to try and escape what I saw. I hope that my teacher would take my prophecy and do well with it. But I was wrong, and I paid the ultimate price for my weakness. I have agonized these six years over why Agyrus killed them, but let me live. But I understand now. Even as possessed by the Dark as he was, he knew I would serve a greater purpose. He knew that I would live to see the return of the Walbreaker, who you hold in your very arms."

"You're crazy!" The silver-haired child-woman screamed incredulously, "Everything that has happened is because of you. You let the Dark out! If anyone is the Wallbreaker it's you!"

"Say what you will, child, but I _know_ I am right!" Danna declared with absolute confidence as she brushed off the Deirdre's words.

The regal woman's voice became distant, like she was quoting something from an ancient tome, "It was said there would be twins in the Wallmaker's line: one will be the bringer of light and the other the bearer of the ultimate sorrow."

"I used to think you would be the Wallbreaker, child. It's why I stole you from your parents; it's why I named you Deirdre, bearer of sorrow. I was wrong about you, but still I had to be sure. It doesn't matter what you've become, Deirdre. I made you an offer once and it still stands. You can still help me save this world," The Daemon Queen's voice was gentle, almost pleading. "Give me the boy"

"No… He's my brother!" Drie whispered fiercely, hugging Akarshan close in her arms. Her twin was trembling with dread, shocked dumb by the mad woman's words.

"I don't want to hurt you, child. The future of our race is in your hands. _Give me the boy_!" The cold woman demanded all softness fading as she spoke in a voice like thunder.

"NO!" The Wallmaker's daughter screamed defiantly.

Instantly, the former healer side stepped and backed against the other. With an expression of horror, Deirdre watched as the daemon queen dissolved backwards into Door with the ease that someone slips on a coat or dress. Suddenly Earin disappeared, leaving behind only the chimera. The other twitched and shuddered, then flexed her claws with the smooth grace of a predator. But Danna wasn't truly gone, just like Door wasn't Door anymore. The Wallmaker's daughter could tell the moment her twin raised cold grey eyes to regard her with a resolved expression Door would never wear. With a feral screech, the daemon surged forward with her obsidian claws extended. But Deirdre had anticipated this and she erupted into the sky, propelled into the air on a pair of enormous silver feathered wings that ripped through the back of her shirt.

As she rocketed into the dome of the sapphire heaven, the child-woman cast a glance back over her shoulder only to see wings the color of night just below her.

xXx

Nalir stared up at the broken spire, which was dark and foreboding. The small young wizard's heart was currently beating madly in the cold pit of his stomach.

It had resided since the ceiling in his mother's room had been ripped to shreds. He had been listening to his mother recount the story of how she had located Earin Danna when they were bombarded with stones and debris. The Mardan youth had managed to keep them from being crushed to death with a hastily cobbled shield. But not before his mother had been struck in the head by a falling beam. Wizard Peoter, one half of the Captain of the Wizard's guard, had just been to see them when the whirlwind hit. The red garbed sorcerer had dug them out of the rubble, returning instantaneously as Nalir called him for help. Had Peoter not returned so swiftly, Nalir was not sure his mother would be alive. He clutched madly at the amethyst scrylass Merra had shoved into his hands just before the gurney man carried her off on a stretcher to the healer's ward.

Her face was covered in blood and she looked so pale; just the memory of if made him faint.

After that Peoter had wordlessly taken him by the elbow and numbly he had followed along silently. His mind, however, was not nearly so quiet. The Herbalist and Master Yewin were both in attendance in the healer's wing. They would see to his mother. She would be fine, Nalir told himself again and again as the copper haired sorcerer steered him through the labyrinth of hallways. The palace was in chaos once again, and common people as well as magi rushed about in a panic. Some even were still screaming, which did nothing to ease the young sorcerer's unease. Peoter paused frequently to speak with several red garbed men and women, and then his eyes went pale and distant. No doubt the man was communicating with his twin, wherever he may be; it must have been far because the be-speckled man swayed.

The red haired youth was not so impressed my mind speech as were some of the other apprentices. In addition to his ability to _see_, Nalir also had the ability to _speak_ and _hear_ at distances. Smugly, the young wizard confided in himself that he could no doubt talk to the Emperor of Ingary at this very moment if he dared. But the black clad apprentice was startled from his private adulations as the Captain ushered him straight into one of the antechambers of the late sorceress Suliman's study. The black robed young wizard was further flabbergasted to find the Wallmaker already there. The wizard Howl was currently ripping huge light bulbs from curtained niches in the walls.

There were six all together and just the sight of them gave him a horrific chill.

"What's the news, Peoter?" The Wallmaker queried nonchalantly, acting if it was perfectly normal to be suspended half in the air while smashing holes in the King's walls.

"A storm surge flooded Porthaven simultaneously as the windstorm hit here and an earthquake struck Market Chipping. All attacks appear to be born of daemon magic," the twin replied soberly. Howl gave a start at the mention of the village's name, his brilliant blue eyes widening as he paused in his work.

"Any word from the village?" The Wallmaker's voice was thin and tense.

"I'm afraid not, my Lord. Although Dieter informed me that he left Barimus at your castle with Lady Sophie."

That seemed to give the raven-haired man some comfort, because he began tugging at the metal rigging in the wall with renewed vigor.

"Can you scry, Nalir?" Howl half shouted at him as he tore a long cable out of the wainscoting. It sparked viciously like a long metal snake, and Nalir jumped fearfully, unconsciously retreating behind the Captain. Much to his embarrassment, the tall man grinned at him sympathetically.

"Y-yes," The red-haired boy replied hesitantly.

"Find elder Tirut," Howl commanded briskly, still pulling on the wires.

"But I need water…" Nalir began lamely, turning the scrylass upside down to show it was empty. Immediately Peoter was gone and he returned with a jug of water from the sideboard. The serious faced sorcerer filled the bowl till it overflowed. The vessel responded to the Mardan apprentice's power immediately, showing his faded elderly teachers in some distant corner of the palace. There were several other Councilors' with him as well as the ruddy bearded face of the Healer Mage. The young apprentice nearly jumped out of his skin as the Captain of the Wizard's guard lean down to peer over his shoulder.

"He's in the west wing with Reth, Tarrma," Peoter relayed.

"Good, would you mind fetching them? Oh, and Peoter! Bring me an electrician!" The lanky man replied without looking up from his work. The twin wizard evaporated out the door leaving the green-eyed apprentice feeling completely lost in the presence of the great Wallmaker. Furthermore, what in the world was an electrician?

"Nalir… how's your mindspeech?"

"I'm ever so sorry for shouting at you earlier, Wallmaker, I apologize completely," the thin boy turn as red as his hair as the words rushed out of his mouth in a very Trissa like manner. As elder Tirut's apprentice turned to bow deeply to the raven-haired wizard, sloshing water out of his scrylass all over the floor. The handsome man paused, still holding a handful of sparking wires.

"No need to apologize…"

"But you're the Wallmaker!"

"If it makes you feel any better, I've shouted at King Ferdinand on several occasions," Nalir was as shocked by that as he had been by the fact that the wizard remembered his name.

"Mindspeech, Nalir! We haven't time for pleasantries."

"I can communicate with anyone I've spoken to in person…" The young sorcerer replied quickly, still pink with embarrassment.

"Good, find me some high level apprentices and some wizard guards. We need to move these light bulbs up to the shield room as quickly as possible. There might be another wave of windstorms and we need to get the shield back up as soon as possible."

Shortly after, the velvet robed boy found himself standing in the shattered remnants of the shield room. The screaming wind was no less vicious here than any other place outside the palace. Just the sound of it turned his blood to ice making him want to shrink small and hide behind something tall.

"Why aren't they attacking us, Nalir?" Ryden was suddenly at his side, staring in trepidation at the wailing mist spirits that hung back on the edges of the room.

"They're afraid of the orbs the Wallmaker brought in… The Wizard Howl said Sorceress Suliman enchanted them a long time ago to be used to expel tainted daemons. Apparently the Witch of the Wastes was stripped of her greed daemons through their power. The Wallmaker thinks he can make the shield run off of them."

"How?" Ryden was awed.

"It makes no sense to me, something to do with wires and bottled lightning."

"We'll, whatever they are they give me the heebie-geebies," the Dun colored apprentice replied with an anxious glance back at the light bulbs.

They both turned their eyes to where the wizard Howl was working with several red garbed magi and a spindly commoner to hook the strange glass orbs up to a cable that snaked back down the hallway. Trissa and Hedera, who were excellent fliers, were currently in the air with Peoter, carefully hoisting the orbs into place through a system of magically controlled ropes. Secretly the Mardan boy was incredibly impressed with the two witches. Even if he could fly, he would not have been brave enough to go into the air with all the daemons about. As many Councilors as he and the Captain was able to drum up were ringed round the workers, looking rather unsure of what the Wallmaker was doing.

The cracked spire loomed over all of their work like a bad omen.

Long ago the glass obelisk was a giant focus, so the Wallmaker had explained briskly. It had been intended to be used in conjunction with magic and had no internal sorcery of its own. According to the Wizard Howl, the spire was very receptive to any kind of magic that was fed to it. Apparently they were going to substitute the bulbs for magi sorcery.

A new circle had been painted on the ground in gold paint hastily snatched up from one of the maintenance rooms. Circumscribed within it was a six pointed star. The circle was a binding spell, one that would hopefully negate the dispersal of magic that would occur due to the crack in the spire. At each of the points was set one of the enormous glass orbs with funny metal coils inside of them. Each bulb sat atop a box-like plinth, from which sprouted a series of metal cables full of colorful wires that the electrician had connected to each other. The man was currently working on hooking up the main power line leading to the circle, which snaked off down the hallway like a huge synthetic tree root.

"Who's the old geezer with the Wallmaker?"

"That's an electrician."

"Never heard of it. What's that?"

"I haven't the faintest idea, why are you asking me all these questions?" The young sorcerer replied irritably.

"Just curious, Nally. You normally have all the answer is all…" the dun colored apprentice seemed hesitant and then finally spoke, "How's your mom?"

If anyone ever questioned that the Magi race was cursed, there was no better proof than its orphaned children. Ryden's parents were both dead, having died even before the Mardan War in some magical accident. Hedera and Trissa were orphans as well, but he did not know how they had come to loose their mothers and fathers. Both were apprenticed to the same teacher, Sorceress Tarmma. She was a plump witch who favored bright colors, sweets, and encouraged rivalry as a study aid. Perhaps this explained why the girls squabbled so much. In spite of their losses, they all lead relatively normal lives growing up in the Royal Sorcery Academy.

That was at least until recently.

Nalir looked down at the small pool in the scrylass he held clutched in his hands and felt his knees begin to tremble. He could easily check for himself on his mother's condition, but he was too afraid of what he would find.

"I don't know," he finally replied uncertainly.

The red-haired boy turned himself away from conversation by returning to his watch over the sky. Howl himself had asked it the two apprentices would scan for signs of another sky finger. And the darkening clouds were beginning to make the Mardan boy fearful. Ryden must have agreed with him, because he began peering at the dark spots with a grime expression. The two young sorcerers could see glimmers of magic in the clouds.

"Wizard Howl, the sky!" Nalir shouted back over his shoulder.

The lanky man was currently in the air with the Captain and the other red guards. Rising higher, the freckle faced man peered with fierce green eyes at the sky. The wizard said something to the Wallmaker that the boys could not hear.

"Hurry!" The raven-haired man shouted.

The anxious tone of Howl's normally urbane voice sent a thrill of fear down the diminutive boy's spine. The Councilors, who had previously watched from the sidelines, suddenly hastened forward and join hands around the circle as the last bulb settled into place. Since the cracking of the spire, the witches and wizards had become more compliant when it came to requests from the Wallmaker. At the same moment, a dark finger of sky descended from the boiling clouds above, and with it came a wind screaming with the voices of thousands of spirits. Just than, a bolt of electric fire shot from the sky; as the lightning struck the fractured spire, it came alive for a moment. Humming brightly, the broken spire filled the room with warm golden light.

"It's going to work!" Howl crowed with an ecstatic laugh and began waving wildly at the wily mortal who held the final cable, "Plug it in!"

As the grizzled old man plunged the master cable into the connection that joined the circle of bulbs, a crackling current of electricity surged through the line. One by one the orbs burst into incandescent fire, drowning out all sound as they resonated deafeningly. The Councilors were enveloped in the rainbow hues of their sorcery as they directed the technologically born magic inward to the broken glass obelisk. Long dark shadows stretched backwards from the magi in the powerful light of the spire and the night sky seemed to shine in the dim outlines of the descendants of the stars.

Responding immediately to the power that surged out of the enchanted glass spheres, the spire flickered at first and then erupted into radiant white light, which it hurled at the dark sky above. As the circle of magi dropped their persuasive enchantment, the light from the bulbs continued to flow into the obelisk. Assaulted by the steady current, the clouds overhead evaporated, exposing the bright blue above as the daemons fled the sound and smell of the synthetic magic.

Instantly, the sky finger dissolved.

The Wallmaker's shouted of joy was lost in the hum of the glowing orbs, although the wizard's eyes were alive with sapphire light. As the lanky man sunk to the ground, he almost fell over backwards trying to stare upwards with a dazzling grin at the slowly forming gossamer dome that draped like a curtain of gold over the clearing sky. A great shout of triumph echoed through the shattered remnants of the shield room as the defenses of the Capital were restored. The magi all rejoiced in the blinding light that filled the cracked spire. But in their excitement, almost no one noticed that Peoter faltered in the air, his cry of pain lost in the cheers.

But Nalir saw.

The Mardan unconsciously refused to look at the cracked glass point for fear of blinding himself. Merra had scolded him several times for staring in fascination at candles. However, his unfettered eyes picked out the suddenly unconscious freckled twin. However, the black robed boy was as flightless as any commoner and the falling sorcerer was out of the range of his kinetic magic. Nalir could do nothing but shout at a crowd of sorcerers who were blind and deaf in the spire's power. Madly grabbing at Ryden's shirt, the young wizard pointed uselessly at the sky. But his friend laughed and picked him up jokingly, thinking his diminutive companion was celebrating the success of their efforts. As Nalir struggled unsuccessfully, he watched in horror as the copper haired man sank slowly at first and then began to fall like a stone from above. As he plunged from above, the green-eyed magi felt his heart fall with him.

Suddenly, a streak of green shot across the broken dome of the shield room, sailing down from on high through the screeching morass of mist daemons that fled the spire's light. Nalir immediately recognized the Markl and the Herbalist's apprentice. For some reason the russet haired boy was garbed in healer's green, not that it mattered; the pair were propelled through the air on what appeared to be a garden hoe. But the Mardan recovered from the shock of seeing the brown-eyed boy quick enough to send a frantic message to the Wallmaker's apprentice.

_MARKL! GET PEOTER!_

It was apparent that the two already had their sights fixed on the falling sorcerer. In the same way a great sea bird scoops up their prey from the waves, Markl launched himself from the garden hoe and caught the Captain feet mere feet from the ground. Although the wizards tumbled to the ground in a pile, their impact was no worse that falling from bed. Theresa landed with far more grace just about the same time that the Wallmaker swooped down form the sky.

"Markl!" Howl shouted.

The lanky man rushed forward to fall on his knees into a rough embrace with his apprentice before pulling back to regard the unconscious wizard he held with unguarded dismay. Nalir and Ryden reached their side just as the herbalist's apprentice wafted a small bottled under Peoter's nose. The wizard jolted wide awake, his face pale and twisted with horror and his distant green eyes mad grief. Blinded by tears and rage, Peoter shot out his hand, trapping Howl's arm in an iron grip.

"Dieter!" The twin keened in abject bereavement, fighting against the raven-haired man's restraining grip, "I can't hear him! He's dead! She killed my brother!"

"What? Who?" Was all the Wallmaker could reply, shock robbing from him all words of sympathy.

"The Daemon Queen… She's escaped!"

Howl looked as if Peoter's words had punched him in the face for this news could only mean one thing. Somehow, the daemon in the workshop had broken free of the binding circle.

At that moment all Howl could think about was Sophie and his children.

xXx

With Calcifer's help, the red wizard altered the circle magic on the front door to take him to the King's office in the airship. The little spark had wanted him to go and find Howl through another doorway in the palace; flat refusing to do anything else but that. It had taken a great deal of shouting and cajoling to convince the fire daemon to help him. Sometimes the living flame was so like the Wallmaker it drove the blond man to distraction. And so he was quite flabbergasted when someone else commandeered the door by knocking on it.

"It's Sophie!" Cal cried, flaring up in the hearth.

Indeed, as soon as he threw open the portal; the Royal Sorcerer stared right into the startled face of his brother's wife. Her brown eyed flew wide for a moment, and then she remembered having left the blond man downstairs as she flew from the castle. Looking beyond her, the golden-eyed man immediately recognized the kitchen at Cesari's.

"Everyone inside right now!" The silver sorceress ordered briskly as she fell back only to usher into the castle the entire Hatter family.

"Company! Oh, what a lovely surprise! Would you like some tea?" Granny witch cried happily as the living room began to fill. The old witch started up from her chair and went to put on the kettle only to find the fire had gone missing.

"Sophie, get inside right now!" Calcifer cried anxiously, flying from the hearth to hover above Barimus' head. But the Wallmaker's wife lingered just beyond the archway, and Nox loomed behind her ominously.

"I can't… I have to stay and find the children," she explained hastily. "Cal, will you look after my family?"

The fire daemon seemed hesitant, as though the only thing he wanted in the entire world was for the little witch to come back into the castle. After a moment, he nodded solemnly.

"No, Sophie, it's not safe out there!" Honey cried tearfully over her husband's bald pate as she clung to the little man.

"Yes, stay with us!" Lettie demanded as she struggled in Alex's grip. The caterer gave every indication she would rush down the stairs and pull her sister inside the flying castle if she could get free. But the brown-eyed mother was not paying any attention to the blonde cook.

With a gaze full of iron persuasion, the Wallmaker's wife turned her attention to the Lord Councilor. "Barimus you have to get the army to leave! The daemons see us as a threat. Nox and I might be able to get the ancients to stop the attacks, but they won't listen to us as long as the military is present in the wastes."

The blond wizard stared at her for a moment as though what she asked was impossible. He then nodded resolutely and spoke cryptically, "And the daemon?"

"They're my children… I will take care of them," The silver-haired mother replied coldly and she turned away.

"Sophie!" Lettie screamed just as the front door slammed shut.

Just as Barimus made ready once more to activate the circle magic on the back of the door, the dial beside the archway spun with a musical chime and pointed to red. Abruptly the door was yanked open and Howl came charging into the castle. Following hot on his heels was Markl, who held a tearful Theresa by the hand.

xXx

As the door shut behind her, Sophie was seized by the most powerful sense of foreboding she had ever experienced.

Immediately, she spun on her heel only to find that Nox had disappeared. She caught sight of him immediately; the tall snow-haired man was leaning out of one of the enormous kitchen windows. An expression of such fierce consternation twisted his normally serene features and the brown-eyed witch felt fearful of the star daemon for a moment. As she approached, he cast his amethyst eyes in her direction and softened immediately.

_Danna has found the children… They are there! _With that the darkly tanned man pointed at the sky over the village.

At the daemon queen's name, Sophie rushed forward to the window ledge to stare in horror in the direction the man-daemon indicated. In the distance, she could see what appeared to be two enormous birds fighting. One had wings the color of starlight and the others were as black as tar.

_We must go!_ Nox's voice echoed like a deep brass bell, heavy with worry and apprehension.

Abruptly the ancient seized her hand and rocketed up into the air, stretching to transform into the shimmering ethereal being she had met beyond the indigo veil. Blinded by the screaming wind and the bright light of the cold white sun, the world dropped away as they cut into the vast sapphire firmament. Flying faster than she had in her entire life, Sophie arched through the cure of the heavens only to return to earth holding a falling star by the hand.

Hurtling from above, Nox and the brown-eyed mother drew near the embattled daemons instantaneously. As they did the horrific screeching of the tainted spirit filled the silver sorceress mind with dread. The dark-winged creature hovering in the air had shed every last stitch of its humanity, and in its place stood a clawed and fanged monster filled by the Dark. However, it was strange because it no longer attacked Deirdre; instead it screamed and thrashed in the air, clutching at its head as if fighting its own internal conflict. Sophie's daughter hung in the sky effortlessly, not far from the daemon, her gigantic silver wings held high almost as if to ward of her attacker. To Sophie complete and utter dismay, her lost daughter held Akarshan in her arms. Although her horror turned to abject confusions as the little witch realized her children shouting encouraging words at the tainted spirit. Their shouts were practically drowned out under the deafening wind that filled the vast emptiness around them.

"Fight her, Door! You don't need her!" Drie cried desperately.

"Come with us, Door-sister! Drieddy's right, you have us now," Shan cheered with sincerest of hopes.

Again the tormented creature screamed, seeming to vacillate wildly back and forth between remorseful longing and bloodthirsty murderousness. The silver sorceress picked out with keen eyes the daemon's face; its eyes faded from an icy grey to the deepest black only to melt into a heartbreakingly familiar shade of sapphire blue.

"Silver sister… Little brother…" The monster warbled with the deep metallic chorus of the Dark, which sent a chill through Sophie's heart. However, like a ray of sun piercing the gloom, another voice cracked through the madness that reached from beyond the Wall. As the cerulean hue intensified, the other reached out its hand to the twins as if pleading to be saved from the madness by which she had been consumed. Trusting in the love she felt for her other, having faith in the spirit's ability to choose its own path, Deirdre reached out and took Door's hand.

"NO!" Sophie screamed as the daemon's eyes immediately faded grey once more as a feral snarl split the monster's face.

But in that moment Nox released his grip on the silver sorceress' and hurled like a shimmering meteor down at the daemons below. Like a hawk plunging down on its prey, the shooting star struck the other just as she ripped open a portal to the otherworld. Still holding onto Deirdre's hand with a vice-like grip, the child-woman and her brother were yanked through the gate along with Door and the elder star.

Tucking in her arms, Sophie propelled herself through the gate on a burst of otherwind moments before it winked out of existence.


	4. Chapter 4: Truce

**The Broken Wall: Part V of the Wallmaker Saga**

**Chapter 4: Truce**

Shortly after the tornado wreaked its havoc on the palace, injured men, women, and magi began streaming into the healer's wing.

The smaller offices along the outside of the extension had been utterly destroyed, but the interior, where the larger wards and storage were housed, remained intact. Few patients had been further hurt in the magic bourn natural disaster, but elsewhere in the Ingarian capital many had not been so lucky. The sallow woman had experienced firsthand the horror of the mist daemon's attack. Had her sister's husband not been present, plucking she and her apprentice from the hungry wind with the fingers of his magic, there was no telling what would have happened.

Shortly after Markl had revived the young man had hastily dressed in a spare set of healer's greens only to go tearing off looking for his Master. He and Theresa had simply jumped on the garden hoe and shot off down the hall, leaving Martha behind without any explanation. Not that she had any time to dwell on the fact that her apprentice had just left her in the dust. Moments after they disappeared, Lady Merra of Marda, who had a serious head wound, was unceremoniously delivered into her hastily constructed hallway examination room. After that the herbalist took charge of the situation as best she could, ushering the other healers into the huge common wards, which began filling with the injured the moment they threw open the doors.

Soon after, healer Yewin appeared and began lending his aid in the triage efforts. At the moment the man had a very similar bedside manner to the herbalist, speaking very little in spite of the fact that he was a notorious flirt. Seeing first hand his seriousness and professionalism in the practice of medicine, Martha silently re-evaluated her earlier assessment of the scheming man. As such, when the previously quiet, fat, bearded man let out a piercing hoot, the dark-haired woman nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Look at the sky!" The magi shouted, as he fixed grey eyes on the quickly brightening azure sky, which showered sunlight through the skylights overhead.

Alarmed, the green-eyed woman plunged her hands into her deep pockets, closing her hand around the score of agrimony ampoules she kept there. Madly casting her eyes at the sky, the frazzled healer half-expected the ceiling to fall down, and the ward to fill with screeching daemons. But the distant howling wind, which had rattled every door, window, and unhinged every nerve in the healer's wing, instantaneously silenced. Instantly deflated by both shock and relief, Martha could only frown sternly at the Mardan magi, who was currently dancing a jig. Once finished cutting a rug, Yewin spun and began stabbing one of his pudgy fingers at the rapidly clearing sky.

"The shield; it's been repaired! The Wallmaker did it!" The red-faced man cried.

Martha's heart leapt in her chest, and silently she rejoiced to know that her sister's husband had managed to salvage the situation. However, the dark-haired woman was about to stride forward and chastise the Mardan healer for frightening both her and several others, when a hand caught hold of her dress.

"Nalir! Where is he?" Demanded the white-faced woman who was struggling to sit up from the small bed. One of her fierce emerald eyes was lost beneath a scarlet stained bandage that wound around her head. Turning her full attention on the struggling woman, the herbalist saw immediately that she was hot with fever. Settling one hand on the woman's shoulder to restrain her, the youngest hatter reached out and snagged one of the many healer apprentices that were madly milling about the room.

"Blankets, poppy juice in hot tea, now!" The sallow-faced woman demanded of the fearful youngster, who nodded and went scampering off as the healer released him.

"Rest Lady Merra," Martha replied in a mellow liquid voice that was at once soothing and powerfully persuasive, as she turned back to her charge, "Lay still."

"Where is my son?" The woman persisted.

A strained look seeped into Merra's face, as a flush began to war with the paleness of her complexion. Thankfully, Martha's errand boy returned with a steaming glass of tea in one hand, and a blanket in the other. The Water Witch was too weak to put up much resistance, as the green-garbed woman unceremoniously put the cup to the Mardan's lips, and forced her to drink the drugged brew. Moments later the seeker slumped in the herbalist's arms. Barimus' wife carefully settled her back against the cot, wrapping her in a blanket. Turning her intense attention to the still waiting apprentice, the healer charged the young student with the woman's care.

In spite of the fortuitous events, Martha was no where near as delighted. Although the herbalist's outward appearance was as calm and controlled as ever, inside the green-eyed woman was mad with worry. She had nearly been killed by a wind storm, her child had gone to who knows where, she was without any word from her husband or her family. At best the green-eyed woman could be described as very brittle, and the grizzle-bearded visitor to her ward was doing nothing to help her nerves. As such, when elder Tirut's black-robed apprentice came tearing into the ward just ahead of a pair of gurney men carrying an unconscious Peoter, the stoic woman nearly lost her composure.

"What happened?" She all but shouted at the small red-haired boy, as she helped transplant the red-garbed man on a cot near Merra's bed. Performing a quick once over of the wizard guard, the herbalist found him to be asleep, but completely unharmed.

"He collapsed mid-air, Lady Martha. He said that his brother is dead and the Daemon Queen killed him. Your apprentice gave him something in a bottle that made him sleep. She, Markl and the Wallmaker left through a portal," embarrassed and nervous, Nalir blurted out an explanation in a quiet voice that only served to further unhinge the herbalist.

"WHAT?" The hard-faced woman screamed, looming over him like a stone daemon, as she rounded on the small boy.

"Shhh…" Nalir hushed at her ineffectually, shrinking from the burning gaze she fixed on him. Although the young wizard managed to garner the dark-haired woman's attention with placating gestures, distracting her long enough that Martha regained a semblance of composure. Luckily, no one around them heard the boy's quick words, and Sophie's sister was thankful for the young apprentice's discretion.

"I'm sorry, Lady Martha, forgive my hasty words," the young man continued smoothly, in spite of the fact that he was as red as his hair. Although the black-clad boy faltered, craning his neck around the green-garbed woman, as he caught sight of Merra.

"Mother!" Nalir cried, and was about to rush to the still woman's side, when Martha caught him by the arm.

"She has been sedated," Martha explained briskly, but Nalir didn't hear her. His face pinched with grief and worry, the young wizard strained against the herbalist's grip, still focused entirely on the injured witch.

"This is my fault!" Agonized the young man. "My magic is for seeking, not shielding… If I could have stopped the rubble she wouldn't be hurt."

"We have done all we can," Martha replied evenly, still attempting to haul him backwards, "Be still, Nalir, I need your help."

Elder Tirut's apprentice seemed conflicted, and then all of a sudden he fixed her with a resolved expression at odds with such a young face.

"What can I do, Lady Martha?" He asked in a sincere voice, and in that moment the herbalist was not so sure of her husband's assessment of the young wizard. Yes, he was vain. Yes, he had little respect for many things. However, what teenager did not? She had been lucky with Theresa, but not every parent could be so boastful. Besides, what good was taking an apprentice if you have nothing to teach your student?

"Find Barimus," Martha did not mean for her request to sound so desperate, but Nalir did not seem to notice. From his voluminous sleeves the pallid young man pulled a beautiful bowl, made of pale amethyst. Reaching for a water jug on the table between the cots, the Mardan youth filled the bowl half full, and began staring into it with single-minded vehemence. As he stared, all color drained from his eyes, leaving them a strange milky color, that caused the hair on the back of Martha's neck to stand up. The surface of the water rippled, showing plainly the kitchen in the flying castle. Howl and Barimus stood in the center of the room, as if they had placed themselves there for the best effect. The brothers were currently shouting at one another, although whatever words they flung at one another were beyond the ability of the scrylass.

"Bloody hell…" Martha muttered incredulously; it was just like them to argue at a time like this.

At the healer's words, Nalir gave a start and blinked rapidly, as his struggled to focus his now green eyes. Instantaneously, the image evaporated upwards from the surface in a cloud of fading mist, leaving only clear water after its passing.

"King Ferdinand," The herbalist asked briskly.

Once again Nalir bent his head to the shifting water. An office brimming with chaos resolved on the thin membrane of the water, and the herbalist easily found the barrel-chested ruler in the milling mess. The mustached monarch and the awkward King of Tyrn were currently consoling the golden-haired Prince Justin, who was red-faced with tears. Martha had a good idea why, and the revelation was accompanied by a piercing stab of sorrow. However, the Daemon Queen was no where to be found, whether that was for better or worse remained undecided. Nor was the presence of spirits immediately apparent.

"Enough… Now Sophie," The dark-haired woman's voice cracked, grief held just beneath its rough borders as she spoke. But the black-robed boy blinked to regain his sight only to stare at her quizzically.

"Who?"

"My sister, the Silver Sorceress!" She snapped impatiently, and instantly was sorry for her harsh words.

He looked so very young when surprised. He was probably the same age as Theresa, barely more than a child. The young Mardan stared at her for a moment; eyes wide open with mortification as that fact sunk in. A moment later he snapped his attention back to the scrylass, cheeks red with embarrassment.

Apparently the young wizard had not known that the Wallmaker's wife and she were related. Not that there was much of a family resemblance among any of the Hatter sisters. Sophie entirely took after her mother, who had brown hair and brown eyes, whereas Lettie looked exactly like their mother Honey. Martha had been told on many occasions that she looked a great deal like their father, who had green eyes and black hair. But the Lord Councilor's wife turned her attention back to the magi apprentice as the water rippled once more. However its surface never transformed into the quicksilver solidity that occurred momentarily before an image formed. Water remained water, much to Nalir's surprise.

"I don't know what to say, Lady Martha… I can't see her anywhere…" Nalir spoke in a voice full of consternation.

But the green-eyed woman was not as flummoxed as the young wizard. Her sister was a sorceress and as such, she was not bound to the mortal realm as were the common folk. Sophie had probably gone beyond the indigo veil, so Barimus called it. However, for what reason she did not know. However, she was pulled from such thoughts as a troupe of soldiers and Wizards Guards came charging into the infirmary, accompanied by several Magi and their apprentices.

"Nalir!" Shouted a giant yet reed thin young man the color of red wet clay.

The apprentice sprouted out from behind his master, a foreign magus who hailed from far south of Ingary. The man's skin was as dark as ebony and Martha immediately recognized Reth the Serene. Barimus had spoken of the sorcerer several times, the man was known for his level headed thinking, and ability to negotiate consensus in the other Councilors. The always glaringly garbed Sorceress Tarrma was in his company, and in her wake swam two apprentices, a plump blonde in magenta, and a thin brunette dressed in a dreadful shade of teal. All the youngsters seemed glad to see Nalir, who waved at them with uncharacteristic gladness. Apparently they were friends. But Martha turned her attention to Reth as the man glided forward in a whirl of indigo-colored silks in which he was shrouded from head to toe. Like motes of embers, the wizard's amber eyes were shrewd and piercing as he regarded the herbalist.

"I greet you Lady Martha. As you know Lord Barimus left this morning with King Ferdinand, and in his absence we of the Council come to seek your guidance in the wake of recent events."

"The shield is repaired, thanks to our efforts," Lady Tarrma smiled smugly, her eyes becoming lost in the easy smile that flitted past her features.

"Yes," Martha's sharp words cut through the rest of the man's flowery speech, her temper flaring in response to the inefficiency of unnecessary decorum, "But the citizens need help. We should send an appropriate portion of our reserve soldiers and Wizards guards into the city to help deal with the damage. Journeyer healers should also be deployed to treat the wounded."

The plump, colorful woman nodded sagely, as if the thought had only just occurred to her. The Magi Council often overlooked matters outside the boundaries of magic, which included the ramifications sorcery could have for the common people. Indeed, her two apprentices seemed rather baffled by the healer's suggestion. How easily the magi forgot the purpose of the Council and the Alliance, was something that continually vexed Barimus to no end. According to the Royal Wizard, magic existed to serve all people, not just the ones that wielded it.

"Master Reth, we need to get in contact with King Ferdinand immediately!" Nalir spoke in spite of the fact that he was peering around Barimus' wife, pressed close to her shadow.

The Councilor regarded the young sorcerer with an even gaze that lingered long enough to make the boy shrink smaller. Ryden grinned at his friend, and then sobered swiftly as his master turned that same impassive scrutiny on the dun-colored youth.

"You are correct, Nalir," Reth's velvet voice was a hint icy, and the reprimand was subtle as he spoke.

"We must also solidify communication lines with Porthaven and Market Chipping. And if possible even Tyrn and Marda. Unfortunately, Lady Merra is injured. Mindspeakers are rare, no doubt you know of others like your mother?" Lady Tarrma regarded Nalir expectantly, in the same manner an adult waits for an explanation from a guilty child.

"Only the late Lady Cyanine, and the Captains," at that the red-haired apprentice cast a worried look at Peoter, who was just as unconscious as his mother. "And myself."

"Really," Reth seemed dubious, "Strange that Elder Tirut never spoke to me of this."

But the green-eyed Mardan lifted his chin defiantly as a hint of haughtiness crept into his voice, "I am still learning, but my gifts for speaking and seeking are strong."

"Indeed…" Again the simple reply was brimming with unspoken admonishment. At this Nalir flushed to match his hair, casting a nasty scowl at Trissa and Hedera, who both giggled.

"We should take any help we can, Councilor Reth," Martha spoke up suddenly. The green-garbed woman towered up out of her silence, coming to the young apprentice's aid. She placed her hands on her hips, regarding the magi with a flinty, unblinking stare.

"Indeed," The indigo-garbed man spoke once more, his reply cryptic.

"Come with us, Nalir. You and the other apprentices will help support our efforts to coordinate communication and relief efforts," The plump sorceress reached out and ushered the boy from behind the herbalist with an all too sweet smile.

But the Mardan seemed uncertain, casting a look back at his mother and Peoter before settling his anxious gaze on the dark-haired woman, "Shouldn't someone stay with Lady Martha?"

"The infirmary can function without me," she spoke in a voice like carved granite, leaving no room for argument as the magi cast startled looks in her direction. "I will go with you to stand in Lord Barimus' place until he returns."

Defiantly, the mortal woman returned the incredulous stares of the sorcerer and sorceress until they both looked away.

xXx

The Wallmaker arrived home only to find his castle quite full.

"Markl!" The Red Wizard cried in shocked jubilation as he caught sight of his nephew and his wife's apprentice.

"Master Barimus!" Theresa wailed inconsolably, tossing aside her garden hoe. The blond man sat down hard on the steps as the red-haired little girl practically threw herself into the Lord Councilor's arms. Anxiously, Markl came forward to place consoling hands on her shoulders. Still the golden-eyed man stared at the young sorcerer incredulously, as if he expected him to disappear at any moment.

"Thank the gods you're alright," Barimus spoke in a hushed voice as he reached out a trembling hand to ruffle the young man's hair, before a flint of fear crept into his warm eyes, "Is Martha safe?"

"Yes, she's fine," Markl replied hastily, as he cast hid uncle a weak smile, still preoccupied by the freckle-faced girl's sobbing. The young wizard was about to explain the red-head's distress when he was brought up short by his father's shouting.

"Sophie?" The keeper of the balance demanded of the Hatter family, as he rushed past his brother to tower in the middle of the room. The rattled mortals stared at him blankly from in front of the hearth. Granny witch bustled among them, passing out empty tea cups. Howl soon realized he would receive no answer.

"Where is she?" He half-shouted at no one in particular.

"Howl!" Calcifer shouted, sending up gouts of black smoke as he whisked up the steps from where he had hovered above Barimus. The lanky man almost snatched him from the air, holding his friend in his upturned palms as the fire daemon explained in a hurried fretful voice, "They caught the Daemon Queen and brought her here to Market Chipping because that's where the King's ships are. They were going to order her banished beyond the Dull Wall."

"Where are the children!" The Wallmaker thundered, his sapphire eyes burning with furious worry.

"I had to stall them, Howl… I couldn't let them send Danna to the burned place knowing it would also doom your daughter," Barimus suddenly spoke in a grave voice.

Howl whirled around to regard his brother in utter shock. The Royal Sorcerer had just made it up the front steps with Markl's help, his pale face twisted with pain. The blond man still held the sobbing young girl in one hand and Suliman's stick in the other, not that the Wallmaker noticed. His entire attention was focused on what the Lord Councilor said next.

"I came here to convince Sophie to let me try and sever the connection. I had to do something. But for some reason your girl let the daemon go," Barimus paused here as if uncertain whether he should continue or not, "It took both of them: Deirdre and Akarshan."

"And my wife?" The raven-haired man was mortified, his voice barely a whisper.

"Sophie went with the elder star to find the children," Calcifer piped up from the wizard's hands, tingeing the deepest anxious teal. Howl experienced several conflicting emotions over hearing that, most chiefly relief and terror. Like Martha said, he did not give the Silver Sorceress enough credit; besides, Nox would not let any harm come to his wife or children. It was childish and inappropriate, but he was more worried about the way he caught the charming fallen star looking at the brown-eyed witch. Star daemons did not have a very good track record when it came to other men's wives.

"She wouldn't listen!" Lettie suddenly shouted madly, finding her voice again as she rocked her youngest daughter in her arms. Her husband Alex had gathered his two elder daughters into his strong arms, and was regarding the room with silent wariness. But his blonde wife continued, "We tried to convince her to stay but she ran off with the stranger."

"Is she alright? Did something happen? Did the daemons come back again?" Honey cried tremulously over Mr. Hausa's pate.

But the Wallmaker did not answer his mother-in-law's questions. Suddenly Howl returned Calcifer to the air, and turned on his heel to stride down the front steps. Throwing open the door, the harsh wind came screaming into the castle's kitchen. The handsome sorcerer stared madly over the edge of the front step at Market Chipping below. He must have seen enough, because as briskly as he had gone; the wizard slammed the door and thundered back up the steps. At the top of the landing, Howl glared at his brother, his blue eyes luminous with fury, as the keeper of the balance clenched his fists.

"Why is the army of Ingary invading the wastes?" His words were cool; however, his temper was not.

"You act like I had a say in the matter, Howl!" Barimus replied with sharp exasperation, forgetting the words he had planned previous to diffuse his brother's temper as he leaning heavily against Suliman's staff.

"Yes you do, Barimus! You are the Lord Councilor, Ferdinand trusts you!" The raven-haired bellowed, breaking the calm as he stalked forward to slam his clenched fists onto the kitchen table. Theresa jumped and stood bolt upright from the red wizard's side, stumbling against Markl away from the Wallmaker's fury. The russet-haired boy whisked her backwards, staring in mutely at his father and uncle as they shouted at one another.

"You underestimate my sway over the King of Ingary, Howl. Remember, until last night I myself was bedridden; I still cannot walk without pain," The golden-eyed man replied icily, barely able to contain his temper. The Wallmaker seemed surprised as he noticed for the first time that his brother was walking, and that there were no casts on his legs.

"But still," Howl recovered quickly, "Why didn't you send word to me that the King was planning to occupy the wastes!

"Why, you…" Howl fumed incredulously at the low blow, and condescending jib. But the raven-haired man rallied and drew himself up, "If you had sent word to me all of this could have been avoided!"

"And what would you have done to stop him, Howl? Thrown his desk out the window again? A temper tantrum is not an effective persuasive tool, _little_ brother."

"Why, you…" Howl fumed incredulously at the low blow and condescending jib. But the raven-haired man rallied and drew himself up, "If you had sent word to me all of this could have been avoided!"

"And where were you? Last time I checked you're the one with the workings legs? Was it too much trouble for you to come to the Capital? Or were you afraid of getting shackled with real work?"

"You ungrateful wretch! I just got back from _your_ Capital, where I fixed _your_ bloody shield! The daemons attacked this morning because of the presence of the Magi in the wastes. _Your _damned banishing bells and mirrors caused this!

"ENOUGH! I'm sick of listening to you deal blame when you hide in this damned flying fairy castle ignoring everything that doesn't please you," Barimus snarled around his pain, as he staggered to his feet, stabbing a finger at the raven-haired sorcerer, who backpedaled sharply, "Last night the same daemon that _ate_ a soldier in Market Chipping earlier yesterday broke into the Palace and _killed_ four people! It was because of this that King Ferdinand deployed his troops into the wastes to find tainted spirits. The daemon is your daughter, Howl. So whose bloody fault is it now?"

Howl was stunned by his brother's words and stared madly at the enraged sorcerer before he found his voice again, "That's not possible…"

"Theresa and Markl both saw her," Barimus replied with cold certainty, his golden eyes narrowed, "She almost killed them both."

"You don't understand!" The Wallmaker explained desperately, "There's another."

"What do you mean, _another_?" The Red Wizard spat dubiously.

"There are two of them: Deirdre and another daemon. The kid calls her Door," Calcifer cut in hotly, flaring a ruddy orange as he hovered above Howl's shoulder defensively, "They look exactly alike."

"Last night I trapped Door upstairs in the workshop," The Wallmaker continued hastily, "She's the daemon Mrs. Danna put in Deirdre; they're separate but still connected. Unfortunately, sometimes Earin Danna is still in control of the other."

Howl turned inward for a moment, a look of horror crossing his features as he worked his way through several things. "Deirdre must have let her out because she was afraid we'd hurt the other. Somehow, the Daemon Queen got a hold of Door again. That's the only way she could have escaped."

"DANNA ESCAPED!" Barimus bellowed incredulously.

He stumbled forward and grabbed a hold of the front of Howl's shirt, much like he had when the Wallmaker told him Danna was still alive. But his anger faded quickly in the moment of absolute silence that followed. Suddenly, their argument seemed absurd in light of their circumstances and all the harsh words were forgotten as the two wizards regarded each other soberly. Truce between them was struck once more, as they both silently agreed on the gravity of the situation.

"She killed Deiter," Theresa spoke up tremulously, and the Royal Wizard turned sharply to stare in complete shock at his wife's apprentice.

The reason for the young girl's sorrow became immediately clear. The young herbalist was red-eyed with grief, her be-speckled face streaked with salt and tears as she looked away out the veranda windows. Markl had his arms around her shoulders and the young sorcerer's face was aged with grief as he sadly regarded his dumbstruck uncle. Turning abruptly toward the door, Barimus teetered unsteadily and probably would have fallen if Howl had not caught him. Slinging his brother's arm over his shoulder, the two sorcerers made their way to the front door.

"Where are you going Master Howl?" Markl shook off the paralyzing dismay, as he realized his father and uncle were leaving.

"We're going to find Ferdinand and deal with this mess," The Wallmaker replied darkly, a great blue fire burning in his eyes.

"You damn fool wizards! I can't go with you as long as the castle's in the air! Besides, you need me!" Calcifer snarled, as he gyrated in agitation in front of the front door for the second time that day.

"You need to stay in the air, Cal," Howl replied soberly, without an ounce of his normal guile, "We can't risk landing. I will call for you if I need your help. I promise."

"Fine, but on one condition!" The fire daemon spat, glowing red embers among curls of smoke before moving aside, "When you going to find some other way of flying this hunk of junk. I'm sick of driving all the time!"

"We're coming with you, Master Howl! We're not afraid of daemons!" Theresa cried as she disentangled herself from Markl, only to drag him forward by the hand. The raven-haired wizard seemed rather amused by this.

"All the more reason for you to stay here in case anything comes back," the wizard paused at the bottom of the steps and let the cryptic words interpret themselves.

"Wait," The brown-eyed boy called after his father, remembering what had sent him after the Wallmaker in the first place. The raven-haired wizard paused impatiently once more regarding his son curiously.

"When I was asleep the star daemons found me and told me something about Earin Danna's past," he had their full attention now, and the young man continued almost in a daze himself, "She was a powerful seer, the real author of Councilor Raia's prophecy. In it she saw the end of all things in the second coming of the Wallbreaker, who Danna thinks is one of the twins. There's a small silver blade, like the ones the healer's carry around. According to the prophecy the Wallbreaker is destined to die by this knife."

"I've seen that knife! It was the one that killed Councilor Raia," Barimus spoke suddenly, shocked out of his grief-induced stupor by the revelation, "I sent Theresa to fetch it when the daemon attacked us last night. Martha saw it as well, she said the touched spirit took it with her when she fled."

"Door didn't have it when she came last night," Howl replied seriously.

"That means Danna must have it," The Wallmaker's apprentice deduced quickly.

With that Barimus rapped Suliman's stick on the wood floor, giving the Wallmaker a fright. The bit of wood had a habit of concealing itself until it wanted to be noticed. The circle on the back of the door burst into vibrant life, and before anyone else could call after him, the man yanked open the door and ushered his brother through.

Moments after they left, Lettie stormed forward and bore down on poor Markl with fierce blue eyes. "Alright, explain to me what the bloody hell just happened?"

"Mommy swore again!" Tilly and Milly cried in unison, putting aside their empty tea cups to clamp their hands over their ears.

"Oh, there's the pretty fire!" Granny witch exclaimed as Calcifer returned begrudgingly to the hearth, "Tea anyone?"

xXx

Every gun in the King's Office pointed at the main entryway as the door flew open.

The Wallmaker and his brother, the Royal Sorcerer of Ingary, entered into a chamber filled with death, sorrow, and destruction. The emperor's great desk had been over turned to make a barricade of sorts, behind which huddled several soldiers and wizard's guards. It was over which the bristle-bearded king sighted with a pistol; at his side, armed with muskets, was the monarch of Tyrn and the prince of Marda. A strange man, neither young nor old, stood briskly with clenched fists. Howl stared at the cursed man in horror tinged fascination; it was like hehe had swallowed a brick of the Dull Wall.

"Stand down, Seran!" Ferdinand thundered, "It's the Wallmaker and the Royal Sorcerer."

The room was a battle ground: blood and gore was spattered everywhere, and the reek of the Dark was thick as smoke in the air. A pile of bodies was neatly arranged in the corner of the rectangular room, their faces covered by the blue coats of the Ingarian army. Curly copper hair of one in particular was heartbreakingly familiar, and it was at this fallen man that Barimus stared in anguish.

"Don't look, brother," Howl murmured softly, trying to steer the Red Wizard from the sight, but the blonde man shook him off. The curly copper hair of one in particular was heartbreakingly familiar, and it was at this fallen man that Barimus stared in anguish.

"He was my friend, Howl," The blond man replied in a bare whisper, "And I sent him to his death."

"It's not your fault, Barimus," in spite of his gentle intentions, the words sounded lame and ineffectual. Unconvinced, the red wizard allowed his brother to lead him away.

"Promise me one thing, Howl," the golden-eyed man's voice was harsh with hatred as he hobbled along, leaning heavily on the raven-haired, "Promise you'll kill her this time."

The Wallmaker did not have time to reply, because suddenly Ferdinand was at their side, following the Royal Wizard's gaze.

"They were good men and women," the barrel-chested man spoke gruffly, "What are you going to do about the daemons?"

Howl spun to face the King of Ingary, barely maintaining his composure, as burning fury smoldered in his luminous sapphire eyes.

"These men and women were murdered by a human, not a daemon. Danna is just another mortal consumed by hatred, not so different from you and I your majesty," the Wallmaker replied in an even voice.

"Ha!" The Ingarian monarch laughed bitterly, "And I suppose that the daemons that destroyed this village, Kingsbury, and Porthaven were justified?"

"Violence begets only violence, King Ferdinand."

"A naïve sentiment for a world such as ours, Wallmaker," The king retorted harshly, as he tugged viciously at his moustache. Howl bristled instantly, remembering suddenly an appointment he had scheduled earlier for his foot.

"Enough! We are here to help not squabble! The longer we wait the more people will die!" Barimus snapped angrily, regarding his brother with a level warning glance. The Royal Wizard limped past them both to the overturned table.

"Lord Councilor," the cursed guard bowed deeply to the approaching sorcerer, and he pulled an overturned chair out of the wreckage for the injured man.

"Thank you, Seran," Gratefully, the red wizard settled with a sigh of relief.

"You must leave the wastes at once!" Howl all but demanded, as he followed after the ruler of Ingary.

"And how do you propose we do that, Wallmaker?" The boy-king of Tyrn piped up with not unpleasant curiousity, as he inspected his shot and reloaded his handgun.

"Half the crew of the ships is scattered to the winds thanks to these infernal spirits. The only reason why this room isn't inundated is because their afraid of Guard Seran," Prince Justin snuffled loudly. The Wallmaker fished a lacy handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to the man. The golden man nodded thankfully, and blew his nose daintily.

"I will go and speak with the Mother of the Wastes," Howl explained, "She is one of the oldest ancients in this vicinity. If I can convince her to call off the younger spirits, you would be free to leave."

"What makes you think a daemon can be reasoned with? They're mindless blood-thirsty monsters, interested in nothing but killing," growled one of the remaining soldiers, a dark colored woman with a bandaged cheek, who clutched her rifle possessively.

"You must leave the wastes at once!" Howl demanded as he followed after the ruler of Ingary.

"And how do you propose we do that, Wallmaker?" The boy-king of Tyrn piped up with wary curiosity as he inspected his shot and reloaded his handgun. Howl regarded the pistol with unfettered disgust.

"Half the crew of the ships is scattered to the winds thanks to these infernal spirits. The only reason why this room isn't inundated is because the blasted creatures are afraid of Guard Seran," Prince Justin snuffled loudly. The Wallmaker fished a lacy handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to him. The golden man nodded thankfully and blew his nose daintily.

"I will go and speak with the Mother of the Wastes," Howl explained, "She is one of the oldest ancients in this vicinity. If I can convince her to call off the younger spirits, you would be free to leave."

"What makes you think a daemon can be reasoned with? They're mindless blood-thirsty monsters interested in nothing but killing," Growled one of the remaining soldiers, a dark colored woman with a bandaged cheek who clutched her rifle possessively.

"Funny, I bet a daemon would say something very similar about humans," The sapphire-eyed man quipped with poorly restrained sarcasm.

"Not all daemons are bad, just like not all of mankind is good," Barimus cut in before the woman could speak again, "Both of our races could stand to learn a thing or two about tolerance."

"Are you saying it's possible to negotiate with the daemons?" King Ferdinand was dubious, "They don't even speak our language!"

"My best friend is a foul-tempered fire daemon. I have experience with these things," Howl retorted quickly with a dazzlingly overconfident smile. The Wallmaker interpreted the silence that followed as consent and continued quickly, "I'm glad we agree. But you must uphold your end of the bargain. As soon as the spirits leave, so too must we!"

"How? Our magic is gone; it was drained in the earthquakes!" Argued a nearby wizard's guard.

"Does technology work because it's magic, or is technology magic because it works?" The Wallmaker spoke enigmatically, and then sighed in exasperation as he was met with blank stares and explained further, "These _ships_ will fly, even if _you_ can't."

With that, the lanky sorcerer strode to the windows and threw one open. Abruptly, a wild wind and the distant shriek of mist daemons filled the room.

"What about the Daemon Queen?" Barimus called after him.

Howl spared a moment to cast a glance at the victims of the mad woman's vengeance and replied with grim conviction, "She won't escape the Dull Wall."

With that, the raven-haired man threw himself out of the window and disappeared. A moment later, the Royal Wizard swayed slightly, as the rubies he wore at his ears suddenly pulsed brightly. As the blond sorcerer looked up, his eyes were wide with surprise. It seemed like he was listening to something very far away.

"Nalir! You can mindspeak!" But the Red Wizard silenced for a moment, only to droop in his seat with a relieved yet troubled expression, "Martha has taken charge of the Council."? Gods help the magi…"


	5. Chapter 5: Broken

**The Broken Wall: Part V of the Wallmaker Saga**

**Chapter 5: Broken**

The screaming mist daemons that hovered in droves of twisting whirlwinds just beyond the airship's windows immediately mobbed the lanky sorcerer. But the Wallmaker was not concerned. As the wizard fell, his body became clad in raven colored feathers, as clothing and all melted into a the guise of a bird. Snapping open his wings, Howl reminded himself he would have to teach his daughter how not to ruin her shirts.. The lanky man brooded on the fact that he would have none left if Deirdre kept up her current rate.

Besides, Sophie had enough sewing on her hands.

The blue-eyed wizard banked and wheeled gracefully, cutting among the shrieking spirits as he threw open his wings and sliced upwards into the sky. The wastes shrank small beneath him, as he skimmed through the heavens just below the cloud line. Here the wind was voiceless, and its icy fingers stung his eyes, in spite of the momentary peace that flying brought to him. In that moment the Wallmaker turned his thoughts back to his wife and children.

Why hadn't Sophie sent him word that Deirdre had let Door loose?

The tranquility that filled the vastness of the sky shattered, as fear constricted in the handsome man's heart. Only after he had arrived at the capital did he learn that Markl had been attacked by the very daemon he and Sophie had trapped in the workshop. And now the contrary creature was loose again in the company of his children. It was easy for the father to construct horrific explanations for the sorceress' silence, now that he knew the Daemon Queen was loose once more. Danna would go after the twins, and that meant his wife would stand right in the middle of the mad woman's path.

It was some comfort to know that the elder star was with Sophie, but no where near enough to put the Wallmaker at ease. Every fiber of his being cried out at him to go and find his wife, but he could not. The situation was bigger than his selfish needs. He had to end this quarrel between the mortals and daemons before it was too late. Things could not continue as they had, for the integrity of the Dull Wall would suffer in the wake of the sorcery entrenched fighting. Did no one understand the consequences of magic? Already in such a short amount of time itthe situation had escalated far beyond all comprehension.

Perhaps that was why he had not told her he his wife why he going to the capital, because he . Howl wanted to keep her safely out of harm's way. He should have known such thoughts were pure folly, especially on his part. The Martha was right, his wife was much stronger than he gave her credit for; the Silver Sorceress had a habit of surprising all of them, especially her husband. Martha was right, his wife was much stronger than he gave her credit for, but

But still. …

He could not help the irrational clench of fear that seized his heart every time he remembered how he had given up too soon. when Erin Danna had taken her into the otherworld. He had lost her once before and now he was terrified it would happen again. The lanky wizard could never seem to tear himself out of the mire of conflicting consequences in which he had become bitterly entrenched. It was too easy for the Wallmaker to see how his action affected the two worlds, and no matter what decision he made, someone died: daemon and mortal alike. The guilt was horrific to the point of debilitation!

Sometimes he thought Sophie would be a better Wallmaker than he; she always seemed to know exactly what to do and when it needed to be done. Never had he met someone so vehemently dedicated to selflessness; and he loved her fiercely for her fearless courage. Sophie would not hesitate to place herself directly in the path of danger if it meant doing what was right. But it was perhaps the silver-haired witch's bravery that frightened him the most.

It was easy in the beginning, during the Mardan War, to protect his family from the horrors of the world. But soon it wasn't enough just to keep his apprentice, and then the beautiful young woman hidden in the guise of a crotchety old granny, safe from harm. Soon he was trying to save both mortals and the wastes from the guns, bombs, and killing fires of War that fed the Darkness beyond the Wall. However, there were too many for just one wizard to stop. No matter how hard he tried, he always failed; and he had lost his last living kin to the wrath of the Dark.

When his uncle Agyrus died, Howl became the Wallmaker and the keeper of balance for both sides of the coin that was the two worlds. By that time both he and his charges were battered by sorrow and hate. So he clung with obsessive protectiveness to what it was that he had left: his family. Howl knew it was wrong to cloister them in the flying castle, as his brother Barimus had commented on many occasions. But the handsome man did not care; his home and family were the one solace he had managed to keep relatively untouched. For the longest time, as a father and a husband, he allowed himself to be selfish.

But even there he had failed.

That was the problem with any kind of balance; it could never be maintained forever. Change was inevitable, as was already evident in the conflict that now threatened to tear the worlds apart, and indeed it had even touched his family. In spite of the mad terror it brought to his heart, Howl had to accept that at this moment his wife and children were beyond his abilities to shelter. All he could do was to trust Sophie's abilities, which in truth he did. It was not that the keeper of the balance did not have confidence Nox. However, Howl did not do well knowing another man was looking after his wife and children.

And then there was Deirdre.

Akarshan could be spoiled and demanding, but for the most part the little boy was incredibly well- behaved. Growing up in a castle full of dangerous enchantments had instilled his youngest son with a strong respect for magic. The six-year-old had experienced the first tendrils of his sorcery early, just like Markl. But between him and Sophie, they had managed to teach both their boys restraint in the use of their gifts. Deirdre, on the other hand, had just come into her magic. Unfortunately, the circumstances of the arrival of her sorcery were uncanny and traumatic. The child-woman did not have the luxury of slowly growing into her skills as did most young magi, adjusting gradually to the responsibilities that accompanied them. She had the full brunt of her powers foisted on her in an instant, as she sacrificed her childhood to the ravenous pull of the Dull Wall to save her mother.

It was not so long ago that he had been blessed with a daughter, but already it seemed like ages. In reality, she had only been part of their family for less than four days. However, in that time she had managed to break every rule in the castle regarding the use of magic. But he could not blame Drie. On top of all the girl's problems was the fact that she was not solely in control of herself.

And then there was the other.

Apparently the myths were true: magi were indeed part daemon, but some more than others. Howl reflected back to how the enchanted bells had reacted to his presence, and that lead him to reflect on the Deirdre's situation. How could they both be the same? They were so truly different, Drie and her Door. However, he could not deny the connection he felt with them both. Unfortunately, that meant he could not save his girl without also helping the other. And again, in the path he would walk to free both, stood Mrs. Danna. But what if he couldn't sever the connection?

The consequences were too horrific to consider.

A wide expanse of reflective blue erupted from the rolling green below as the wizard soared above Star Lake. It was one of Howl's favorite places in the world because of the magic that teemed just beneath the surface of the mortal world was clean, wild, and untouched. Here was the heart of the Wastes. Tucking in his wings, the Wallmaker dropped from the sky like a diving falcon. Raven colored feathers dissolved all around him in shimmering spirals as he slowed abruptly, touching down with human feet.

He did not have to wait long.

A ripple pulsed through the thick grass on the banks of the lake as soon as he arrived, not born by any wind. Indeed, it was quite still around him. Too still, and the silence was almost oppressive. Suddenly the ground before him trembled violently, and split with an earth-shattering roar. As the ancient reared up into a towering figure of rock, loam, and green growing things, it brought the lake with it as well. Wrapped in a cloak of churning green water, the great elemental solidified. Clods of dirt fell away as it passed a gnarled hand of roots over its face, revealing a human-like visage amongst the lake grass and pond lilies in its hair.

The ancient drew herself up, towering above Howl as a great wind ripped downward from the sky. It lashed at the green hills, snatching from the mantle of water a misty spray as it tore at the intertwining vines that made up the garment of her form. Her limbs groaned and creaked like the boughs of a wood in the strong gale. However, the ancient remained rooted in place, swaying gently with the wind. The immeasurable depths in the being's eyes swirled with furious mysteries, glittering at him like points of jet. It was the same presence that stared out of Markl's eyes earlier that morning. However, in spite of the fact that the verdict still remained undecided, the mother of the Wastes was angry; _very_ angry.

"Mother of the Wastes, we can still restore the balance!" Howl began quickly, sensing the daemon's impatience.

_Mortal words are beyond me, Wallmaker. _Its words were scorching a vermillion in his othersenses, echoed deafeningly in his mind like the crash of a crimson wave that uncovered too many disconcerting memories.

_Truce, Mother Ancient! I seek a truce! _Howl managed to speak in his othervoice around the overwhelming sentience that filled his mind.

_I warned both the Star and your kin that there would be War if the mortals invaded Kindred land! Why should there be a truce if the great metal monsters linger still on our footsteps! _Again the ancient's words were burning with ire, flying like red hot arrows that pierced the Wallmaker's mind.

_The mortals were driven to action because of a Dark- touched mortal. _Howl explained desperately, constructing a mental picture of the obsidian hydra that almost destroyed Kingsbury.

_You speak of the Mad One… She is known to the Kindred. _The daemon's wrath subsided, only to be replaced by a damp green curiosity, tinged with the tang of charcoal- colored trepidation.

_They did not understand that it was not your children that brought death to their cities. They were confused before, but now they bear you no ill will and wish to leave. But they cannot; they're trapped by your children. Call them off and the airships will leave._

A great silence followed where the ancient bore down on the lanky sorcerer, in a creaking tangle of twisting green vines and muddy water. The being'sbeings eyes were so close Howl could have touched them it he tried. The elder daemon regardedingregarding him with the most piercing scrutiny he had ever endured; even worse than the stare of his late teacher Suliman.. The blue-eyed sorcerer felt weak and chilled as the elemental invaded his mind, and all was laid bare before its roving eyes. He could not have kept a secret from the ancient, even if he wanted. But the elemental must have been satisfied, because the boiling storm clouds that had darkened her thoughts suddenly broke. Its mistrust dissipated, leaving behind neutral dismissal.

_You speak truth, Wallmaker. There will be truce between Mortals and Daemon once more. _

Suddenly, the wild elemental straightened and stared at the bright sun in the sky overhead with a human-like expression, very near to shock. However, the sentiment was fleeting, leaving behind the air of a being completely resolved to its fate.

_But I know not what good it will do now… _

As the spirit spoke a distant reverberation rung within the Wallmaker's mind; it ebbed and flowed, like the sound of an approaching airship. But the cerulean-eyed sorcerer knew no mortal contraption could make such a noise. At its strongest point the echoes rattled through the lanky man like the screech of nails on chalkboard, setting Howl's teeth on edge. But the resonating disturbance grew stronger still. And with it came the cold sharp taste of the otherworld, tinged with the burned sulfur smell of the Dark.

Accompanied by a boom as strong as a thousand thunderclaps, the distant reverberation finally found the mortal world. A tremor unlike any other threw the Wallmaker from his feet, as the sky darkened abruptly. But it was not because something had passed before the sun, for the burning white globe entirely ceased to be. As the pale blue firmament faded instantaneously to deep velvet navy, the world was cloaked in the mellow darkness that existed beyond the indigo veil. Without explanation, the Mother of the Wastes disappeared, compelled by some force to resolve into a pinwheel of viridian light that went hurtling up into the sky above. Other points of twisting light went rocking through the sky, as one by one they winked into being overhead. Like a vast inverted map of the world, the cosmos of glowing embers in the new sky overhead mirrored the topography of life in the mortal realm. The serenity of the green hills filtered down from the otherworld, like the mellow light of the stars that once lived there.

But in that moment of twilight, the doom of the world was spelled out on the sky.

Abruptly, the heavens were violently ripped apart by a great barrier of charcoal black that heaved out of the verdant plains, divided the encroaching otherworld in two. Beyond the horizon came a hideous wave of boiling blackened crimson hatred, surging through the vast scorched world, held back by the Wall, until it crashed against the barriers in the sky. The Dark erupted downward, looming larger and larger as it leapt from the ground like a ribbon of incandescent magma, madly trying to reach the mortal world as it fled the hungry appetite of the charcoal bricks. Howl cringed in horror, pressing himself against the grassy ground as it seemed for a moment that the madness had broken free. But its fingers of madness were forced backwards, back to the burned place where it was trapped for all eternity.

All except for one place.

A primal scream of mad denial ripped from Howl's lips, and he would have fallen had he not already been sprawled on the ground. Directly overhead, a section of the Dull Wall had suddenly crumbled. The Wallmaker writhed in agony, as he physically felt the charcoal bricks of the barrier suddenly become brittle and turned to ash. He had blocked the Dark once before when Agyrus had broken the Wall, but the break had been small and he had been right before it. Like a ravenous beast incapable of ever sating its hunger, the Dark flooded through the breech, and Howl was too far away to stem its flow. The Tainted Magic would rush through and destroy the green plains, only further weakening the rest of the barrier. The rest of the bricks would cease to be in no time.

The broken Wall should have been the end of all things, but it was not.

A blinding column of blazing iron silver fire erupted into life directly in front of the breech, shining like a supernova in the sky overhead. Casting a hand before his face, lest his eyes be blinded, the wizard watched as the light caused the molten tar embodiment of evil to freeze in place. But out of the madness was born great gouts of obsidian shadow, which rushed forward like a voracious mist to devour the light. However, the Wallmaker had no time to consider the silent catastrophe that was playing out in the sky overhead. Out of the embattled otherworld, riding the leading edge of the bittersweet otherwind, came a cascading shower of shimmering Star children. The daemons fell in trailing ribbons of magnesium white fire to the mortal realm. They crashed around him in great flairs of icy fire, as the crystalline shattering of their panicked shouts filled his ears.

But the daemons wasted no time for an answer.

Whisking the bewildered Howl into the thin tendrils of their arms, the star children rocketed back up into the confusion that separated the two worlds. Carrying the Wallmaker among them, the spirits hurtled upwards at the bright point of light that reared before the breech, like a guiding beacon.

xXx

Markl sighed in exasperation, as he tried to explain for the umpteenth time what exactly had happened.

However, his mother's family was not very credulous in regard to his story, nor were they savvy in the ways of magic. Soon any truth or point he had stitched together was pulled apart at the seams by interruptions and the misunderstandings that are born out of fractured explanations. Once again the russet-haired boy tried to explain how exactly the shield in Kingsbury worked, when he tossed up his hands in defeat. The freckle-faced girl was currently braiding Tilly's hair and Milly was patiently waiting in the wings for her turn. His cousins had taken quite a liking to the green-eyed apprentice, and were fascinated by her voluminous trousers.

"It's like a skirt and pants!" Milly whispered conspiratorially to her sibling.

Lettie seemed grateful for the distraction the young healer gave the little girls. His middle aunt was rocking her youngest daughter in her arms. All the Hatters were still clustered silently around the fireplace. Alex, Lettie's baker husband, was patting Heen on the head, as Granny Witch and Honey prattled on soothingly about the weather and knitting, like nothing in the world was wrong. Mr. Hausa was snoring softly. The mundane surroundings were absolutely maddening in light of what the young sorcerer knew was going on beyond the walls of the castle. And so the Wallmaker's apprentice began to pace fretfully making a wide circuit around the kitchen table.

"You should eat something, Markl. You don't look very good," Theresa spoke up suddenly from one of the benches, distracting him from the rut he was working on wearing in the ground.

"This is driving me nuts, Theresa…" The russet-haired boy hissed between his teeth, as he came to sit next to her. His distress caused the herbalist's apprentice to pause and regard him soberly. That garnered a disapproving frown from Tilly, whose hair was not quite finished yet.

"Now you know how I feel every time our family goes running off without me!" Calcifer called irritably from the grate with a chittering pop. Markl was about to shoot back a sharp reply when Lettie glowered at them both.

"SHHHH! You'll wake the baby!" His middle aunt hushed them irritably. There was something in the way that the Hatter sister's glared that put the fear of the gods into you. Both sorcerer and daemon cowed instantly.

"Master Howl wouldn't have asked us to stay without a good reason," Theresa replied patiently, causing the brown-eyed boy to return his attention to the girl. As she continued to braid, Markl stared openly at her until the red-haired girl noticed his earnest gaze, and colored a rosy pink.

"What?" She quipped, her voice a little high pitched.

"Fourty-two," The Wallmaker's apprentice replied with absolute certainty, still continuing to stare at her.

"Fourty-two what?" She asked curiously.

"You have fourty-two freckles," He replied honestly, as he colored to match the young girl. "I've been counting them for a long time. But I haven't been able to see you in such a while I almost lost count."

"I don't like my freckles," Theresa replied bashfully, turning her eyes back to the cornrow braids she was working on.

For some reason Markl was feeling bold, so he continued to look at her and smiled shyly, "I think they're very pretty."

Martha's apprentice was absolutely silent after that, and the russet-haired boy noticed her hands were shaking. The Wallmaker's apprentice was too preoccupied with the green-eyed girl to notice his Aunt poke her mother, and motion with her chin toward the youngsters. Honey looked in the direction her daughter indicated and blinked in surprise, only to grin at Lettie. The caterer wore a matching smirk, and she winked.

"I think you're hair is pretty too…" Because of Theresa's silence the young sorcerer began to loose the daring he felt before, and he stuttered nervously, "It's very, um… red… And I like the leaves you put in it."

"I still have leaves in my hair! But I haven't been in a tree for days!" Theresa flushed in dismay, dropping her work to pat self-consciously at her curls.

"No, no, they're nice; leave them the way they are," Markl reached out and fished a leaf that poked precariously from behind one of the twisted knots the girl always wore. The young man stuck it in his hair and smiled at her, "See?"

Again Theresa stared at him silently, braids forgotten. With a gusty sigh, Tilly stood and shook out her hair, and took her sister's hand. The little girls went to climb into their grandmother's lap, who began anew what the herbalist's apprentice had begun. After the quietness between them grew more and more tenuous, Markl began to fidget nervously.

"Thank you!" He blurted out into the silence between them, "For taking care of me when I was asleep."

"All I did was cry on your sheets. Lady Martha's the one what who did all the work," the herbalist's apprentice replied dismissively, although she did scoot a little closer.. Markl's heart began to beat very quickly as she began to speak again, "Besides, you're the one that saved us from the daemon."

"Actually… You saved me. So, thank you again," awkwardly, he extended his hand to shake hers.

The freckle- faced girl started at his open palm for a moment. Then she leaned closer, turning her head to the side, and tilting it towards him. "You know, there's another way to say thank you that's much nicer."

She was staring at him intently out of the corner or her emerald eyes, which looked three times as bigger than they had before. The Wallmaker's apprentice nearly fainted, as he experienced a stab of panic mixed with wild elation, when he realized she wanted him to kiss her on the cheek. Markl had never kissed a girl before, and had no idea how to go about it. But the young sorcerer still remembered in vivid detail how the little red-head had kissed him on the cheek before the spire cracked. The memory of it was not helping him feel less light headed. He was about to lean down towards her, when the young sorcerer realized every single pair of eyes in the castle was on him, including Calcifer's.. The fire daemon was grinning at him with a ridiculously smug expression.

Markl froze, although his brain did not turn off entirely.

He silently thanked providence that his youngest aunt was not in attendance. The herbalist was very protective of her apprentice. If she had been present, there was no doubt in his mind that the dark- haired woman would have chased him about the castle with a bucket of water, m.. Much like she had Calcifer nearly six years ago. But his paralysis did not even pass when the herbalist's apprentice cleared her throat expectantly. Indeed the poor boy was rooted in place, and stayed that way until he heard a disconcerting sound. It was faint, almost like an echo; but the deep reverberation rattled him down to his bones. It made every hair on his body stand on end.

"Did you hear that?" The young wizard asked in a hushed serious voice. Theresa blinked rapidly, the confused expression on her face melted in to bright anger.

"I don't hear anything," she replied irritably and went to stand, when the brown-eyed boyby grabbed her hand. This time the echo rattled the castle harder, causing all the furniture to vibrate.

"There it is again!" He half shouted, starting to his feet as he pulled Theresa with him.

"What's going on?" Lettie frowned, as she started up from her chair, regarding it in horror as though it had bitten her, "I thought you said the castle was safe?"

"Calcifer?" Markl cried in alarmed confusion, as he spun to see the fire daemon's guidance. However, the living flame looked just as shaken as he, even more so as a shockwave hit the castle, just as the light outside was plunged into darkness.

"No!" Calcifer shouted as he started up in an icy blue hue, his face frozen with dismay, "The Wall!"

Before he could explain, the daemon melted into a twisting orb of white light and went hurtling up the flue. The young sorcerer rushed forward, plunging his hands into the ashes as he craned his neck to stare madly up the chimney.

"CALCIFER!" Markl screamed, but there was nothing there but soot. The fire spirit was gone.

"Heen? Here doggy? Where are you?" Granny Witch cried anxiously. So too was missing the daemon turned fat dog.

A few second after the spirits were gone the castle gave a great ominous, moaning creak.

"Nobody move!" The russet-haired boy commanded as he carefully straightened, before gingerly turning to face his family. Theresa was rooted in place as she reached for her garden hoe, which leaned against the table's bench.

"What's going on? Why did he leave?" Lettie demanded, and gasped shrilly as another deep moan wracked the walls.

"Theresa, get your hoe. Take Milly and Tilly just in case," He spoke as calmly as he could.

"Slowly!" He cautioned, as the red-head moved a little too quickly to pick up his cousins asnd and another shuddering creak passed through the room. They squealed and reached for their mother, but Theresa held onto them none-the-less.

"What do you mean _just in case_?" Alex spoke up anxiously, as he shook Mr. Hausa awake. The fat bald man was still snoring.

"Calcifer's magic keeps the castle in the air," The russet- haired boy explained quickly, and he let the explanation hang meaningfully.

The look of trepidation on the boy's face momentarily silenced all questions. Honey went white with horror as Granny Witch stood carefully. But Markl had turned back to the fireplace, and carefully dragged the large bronze plaque embossed with a great golden sun away from the wall. Behind it was an incredibly complicated magic circle, painted in multiple hues by Howl himself, when the wizard rebuilt the castle after the Mardan War. The mark held together the various parts of their home, but the Wallmaker's apprentice was not fearful that the castle would fall apart.

The circle also kept them aloft.

Much like a fire, it was a passive kind of magic, and needed constant fuel; which Calcifer supplied simply by being near the hearth. This was why the living flame had to remain inside the castle at all times when they were in the air. However, just like embers retain heat after a blaze has burned itself out, the circle held a few echoes of the fire daemon's magic after he was gone. But Markl was not sure it would be enough to get them to the ground in one piece, nor was he sureif he could keep them in flight through his own sorcery. Unceremoniously, the young wizard folded up his legs and sat in the middle of the ashes that filled the grate, leaning back against the circle of magic.

Where on earth had Calcifer gone? Why had he left them?

"What are you doing, Markl?" Honey cried in dismay, although her trepidation seemed to center mostly on the state of his clothes.

"Flying the castle! Now sit down and be quite… Please!" He amended hastily.

Through the panic that seemed to fill the room like smoke, Markl found Theresa's eyes. The herbalist's apprentice did not look afraid at all, which cultivated a wild sprout of hope within him. As she hugged Tilly and Milly, her garden hoe gripped in her elbow, she actually smiled at him. Suddenly the russet-haired boy wished he had kissed her; right on the mouth even! Just then the building began slowly to list to one side, and a queasy sensation of falling caused everyone, who hadn't already, to take a seat.

Flying was not nearly as easy as Calcifer made it look. Never again would the young wizard take the fire daemon's presence for granted.

The magic mark was ravenously hungry, and it was a bit of a shock to the son of the Ssilver sSorceresssilver sorceress how much sorcery it took to keep the castle in the air. The building dropped abruptly, causing several of his family to cry out as the young wizard tried desperately to slow their increasingly fast downward spiral. He was flying blind, and had no idea how to keep the fortress from reeling further and further to the side. As the castle continued to roll, Markl was reclined almost diagonally against the back of the fireplace and the furniture began to slide towards him madly. Dishes, pots, and pans clattered to the floor all around them, some smashing to pieces on the floor. Theresa deposited Tilly and Milly in front of her on the garden hoe as she kicked off from the floor. The girls squealed in surprise, as they hovered effortlessly in the air.

"Look, Mommy! We're flying!" Milly laughed joyfully, although she clung to the shaft of the garden tool with white knuckles.

"I don't like flying!" Tilly cried tearfully, burying her face in the back of her sister's dress. But Theresa kept them both steady as she avoided being crushed by the shifting furnishings. The kitchen table and its benches skidded under her feet and slammed into the sink to the left of the hearth.

"Oh, dear!" Granny witch exclaimed, as she began sliding forward and was almost dumped into the fireplace along with Alex, Lettie and her parents.

"Can't you keep this thing straight?" The blonde caterer huffed as she lifted her youngest daughter into the air, trying to keep the baby from the ashes being dumped into her lap.

"My dress!" Honey shrilled in dismay as the grime found her, as well and the couch began slipping back into Granny Witch's room.

"This is fun!" The faded old woman laughed like a twittering bird, as her chair went skittering through the curtains. Mr. Hausa chuckled and Alex as well, both men holding onto their wives, lest they fall off the couch. Markl was forced to brace himself against the upper lip of the hearth with one of his long legs to keep from falling out of the fireplace.

"We're going too fast," Theresa cried as she came up along side the fireplace.

"I know, I know! I'm doing the best I can!" The Wallmaker's apprentice grated between his teeth, managing to somewhat level out the flying house. "How close are we to the ground?"

The red-head darted over to peer out the veranda window and her face looked a little green, "Too close!"

"We're going to crash!" Milly screeched, which set her sister shrieking.

"We're almost to the ground!" The herbalist's apprentice screamed.

The fear in her voice motivated the young wizard far more than anything he had ever experienced. Bracing his back against the circle, Markl pushed with all his might, willing the conglomeration of wood and metal that was his home to halt its descent.

"_STOP_!" His voice thundered through the castle.

With a groaning squealing lurch, it did. Shocked by the stillness, the brown-eyed boy lost his grip on his magic and the castle plummeted the last ten feet to the ground in the middle of a field outside Market Chipping. Honey continued to scream even after they had landed. The dust and ashes clogged the air, as overhead the crunch and grating of the vast clutter of towers settling ceased. Silence ensued, but only briefly.

"Markl, you did it!" Theresa cheered ecstatically, as she landed her garden hoe and scrambled past the little girls to climb up into the hearth with the exhausted sorcerer's apprentice. The young man didn't have the strength to protest as the curly- haired girl pulled him by the shirt out of a pile of ashes and covered herself in soot by kissing him. Right on the lips even!

At that point he didn't care if his aunt and grandmother were watching him!

But the both of them were distracted from their celebrating as Granny Witch stood and dusted herself off, bustling across the slanted floor, over to the veranda windows.

"Oh, what a terrible sky!" She cried is dismay. Something in her voice sent a chill down Markl's spin. Scrambling out of the fireplace, dragging Theresa after him by the hand, the young wizard spilled down the uneven tiles, out into the dark backyard.

Following the faded old witch's gaze, the Wallmaker's apprentice regarded the inverted view of the otherworld that filled the heavens, with absolute horror.

xXx

The Rred Wred wizard was talking to himself.

Hunkered down in one of the pilot's chairs, in the enormous bridge of the airship, the blond man had swiveled into a corner, and was scowling viciously as he yelled at the paint on the wall. The rubies at his ears were glimmering softly with an uncanny inner light.

"I don't care what the Councilors are doing; they're a mad silly bunch when they panic!" There was a long pause as if he was listening to someone that no one else could hear. "Tell them the Wallmaker has already left and the white light is a good sign.

There was another long silence, and then the Rred wWizardred wizard began cursing, using some very creative language before continuing, "What? He did? That bastard! Okay, tellTell Martha she can drug the trouble makers if she has to."

The blond man uttered a sharp sardonic laugh, "Yes, I know she's terrifying; but it's a good kind of medicine for the Council. But stick to the priorities, Nalir!" Barimus growled to the thin air, "Tell the Guards to get their soldiers out of the wastes! No one is to cross the bridge, you hear me! Tell them to help the citizens."

To another sorcerer the Lord Councilor's behavior was not all that strange; however, the Royal Sorcerer garnered several uneasy glances from King Walden of Tyrn. Barimus' eyes were pale, almost an uncanny milk white; the sight of them turned the mortal's blood to ice. The young ruler was still rattled by the strange apparition that had appeared in the sky, moments after the huge granite spire had withdrawn from the airship's wing. He still remembered the look of horrendous panic that had seized Barimus, as the crimson- clad wizard leaned madly out of the window to look at the darkness that had fallen abruptly over the world. It was not the look of a sane man.

"Are you sure he's didn't crack?" The boy-king whispered nervously to Prince Justin.

"He's using mindspeech to talk with the Council in Kingsbury," the golden man explained for the fifth time, all too patiently.

"Where did the daemons go? Did the Wallmaker make them leave?" The red-haired young man asked again, curiosity bright in his voice. Walden was still fascinated by magic.

"I have no idea," Justin replied curtly, irritation beginning to roughen his delicate features. Shortly after the extraordinary night fell over the land, the spirits that had previously surrounded them in droves suddenly disappeared. The Mardan Prince liked to think that it was because of something the Wizard Howl had done, but the expression on the Lord Councilor's face made him think otherwise.

"All of the skyships are in the air, your Majesty," cCalled one of the Wizard's Guards, as he put down a large bronze medallion that he had been spinning a moment ago. It was one of the communication charms distributed earlier.

Another robin- uniformed soldier, who was helping pilot the ship turned, his attention to the Ingarian monarch, "What is our heading, King Ferdinand?"

"Home, and quick," the barrel-chested ruler stood quickly from one of the swivel chairs attachkedattacked to the bridge floor, as he leaned over the pilot'spilots shoulder to peer at the sky crafts that showed through the darkness outside by their glowing lights. "Send one of the ships with the most remaining crew to Porthaven for disaster relief. Have another linger above Market Chipping long enough to collect any injured before returning, but the rest of the soldiers are to remain in the village."

Abruptly, the Rred wWizardred wizard staggered gracelessly to his feet, using the twisted wooden staff for support. The fact that he held the stick was not missed on any in the room who knew what it was. Scowling fiercely, the blond man hobbled to one of the ceiling length windows that lined all sides of the cockpit, and stared up into the sky at the bright point of silver light. Ferdinand appeared at the wizard's side, and for a moment the King of Ingary caught a glimpse of the wild terror in the Royal Sorcerer's eyes.

"Do I want to know?" He asked in a quiet voice that was lost in the lulling hum of the ships engines. The broad-shouldered man straightened, clasping his hands behind his back as he stared at the sight above. However, Barimus heard his king's words.

"No, your Majesty… You don't," Barimus replied in a deceptively even voice, without taking his eyes from the sky.

"Is that the otherworld?" He asked after a moment of silence, and his question took the golden-eyed wizard by surprise.

"Yes, my lord. It is." He replied, stillStill stunned by the king's words, and yet impressed by his knowledge.

"Your teacher, dear Suliman, used to describe it to me. I never thought I'd actually see it," the Ingarian man's eyes were large as he cast a glance at the twisted wooden stick the Royal Wizard held in his hand. But the bristle- bearded man turned his gaze back at to the velvet firmament overhead, "It's beautiful… in a horrific sort of way. What does it mean?"

"Something has damaged the Wall," Barimus spoke truthfully in a solemn voice, careful to make sure no one else heard him. Ferdinand gave a start, but recovered quickly. However, he contained his disquieted very poorly, and his moustache began to twitch incessantly.

"And the Wallmaker?" The brown-eyed monarch's voice broke, and he was forced to clearing his throat uneasily. Barimus answered wordlessly by turning his eyes to the white light overhead.

"Not to worry, we have our shield again thanks to Wizard Howl! We'll be safe in Kingsbury," Ferdinand assured Barimus as the large man's face came alive with confidence. However, in that look there was a searching quality, as if the king was hoping that the Royal Wizard would agree with him.

"Indeed, your Majesty," The Rred wWizardred wizard tore his eyes from the sky to beam back at his king, reverently praying that his handsome smile looked more sincere than it felt. The Royal Sorcerer did not have the heart to tell him that no shield would keep them safe if the Dull Wall fell. And the lie fell into the pit of his stomach like a lead weight, gathering with its frozen brethren, which dragged the blond man deeper into the depths of his hidden despair.

"Lord Barimus… Isn't that Wizard Howl's flying castle?" Walden called from the distance, having to raise his voice to be heard over the hum. The boy-king was peering out of one of the observation windows.

"My gods, it looks like it crashed!" Justin exclaimed, as his keen eyes picked out the state of the contraption through the darkness outside.

The Rred wWizardred wizard nearly threw himself through the window, as he stared with incredulous golden-eyes where the golden man pointed. In a field below them, illuminated briefly by one of the ship's roving spotlights, was the flying castle. Howl's home was dark, and looked as if it had fallen from the sky. It leaned precariously to one side, thin mechanical legs jutting limply from under its metal bulk. Several of the towers had broken off, and were scattered about, casting long pitiful shadows in the wheat field.spotlight.

"Go, man! Take a sky kayak!" Ferdinand shouted earnestly pointing towards the exit.

"I don't need one," The Royal Sorcerer replied curtly in mad distraction, as he went in the opposite direction.

Prying open the door that led to the catwalks outside the bridge, wind and the full roar of the engines flooded the room. But they were accompanied by an escort of crimson feathers, as Barimus hobbled out onto the balconies outside, only to be snatched up into the sky by an enormous pair of crimson wings.


	6. Chapter 6: Bearer of Sorrow

**The Broken Wall: Part V of the Wallmaker Saga**

**Chapter 6: Bearer of Sorrow**

A pair of long silver wings resolved behind her as Sophie plunged headlong through the portal.

She sliced through the velvet darkness as the bittersweet endless wind of the otherworld sang silently in her mind. The realm beyond the indigo veil opened up before her without direction, and the mellow navy light gave no indication of whether she flew up or down. Some found the moment of disorientation maddening, but the Silver Sorceress did not care. Faster and faster still she fell, driven forward by her cloak of feathers. But not fast enough to catch the retreating point of brilliant light.

Below her, she could see the magnesium fire trail of the falling star. Intertwined in its light, like a consuming disease, was the poisonous yellow-black fury of the disquieted daemon. Its incredulous mad screeches echoed in the silver-haired witch's mind, like nails on a chalkboard, and the chimera grappled with Nox viciously. Clawing and ripping at the ancient spirit with tooth and talons, it struggled to free itself from the being's grip, whipping about and thrashing wildly. But the man-daemon did not strike against the tainted spirits, for he knew any violence he made against Door would surely register on Deirdre. Instead he wheeled and fluctuated defensively, melting mercurially around the doppelganger's assault. But in such close quarters, it was not possible to go unscathed. Regardless, the elder star was relentless, and he was as unfazed by the creature's attacks as his grip was unbreakable. However, the Wallmaker's wife knew that the balance of the stalemate was tenuous, and it could tip to either side at any moment.

But where were Shan and Drie?

Apparently the monster no longer held the child-woman by the hand. Nox's tenacity must have provoked the daemon into letting go. However, her children were nowhere to be seen below.

_Deirdre! Akarshan! _Sophie screamed silently.

Desperation made the mother's voice echo powerfully through the rushing gloom that whisked past her in rolling sheets. Instantaneously, the ring on her finger burst into life; pointing an incandescent beam of cobalt light straight back over her shoulder. The Silver Sorceress nearly fainted in terror as a gigantic shadow fell from above, only to resolve into the familiar shape of her lost daughter. The child-woman snapped open a pair of dazzling silver wings, halting her descent as she wheeled and banked in the eddying gale to hover adjacent to the brown-eyed witch. Held to her by the vice-like grip of one of her arms was her twin brother. The little boy could not yet speak in his othervoice, but he waved at her fearlessly. Akarshan's face was white with fear, although his bright blue eyes were curious as he took in the otherworld.

_Mother! _Deirdre called with her othervoice, wild panic in her mind as she reached for Sophie with her free hand.

But as the Wallmaker's wife brushed her daughter's fingertips, a hideous snarl of claws and coal-black tatters rushed up between them. Wearing her own set of feathers, the other shoved between them casting open her wings to tear the family apart. Sophie was struck hard with the creature's pinfeathers and foundered in the air. Deirdre spiraled aside, tucking in one of her wings to shield her brother, as the possessed spirit reached for them murderously with its obsidian talons. But the daemon's attack was abruptly cut short. Wrapping the thin tendrils of its shimmering arms around the tainted ancient's neck, the star daemon yanked the creature backwards. The besieged spirits plunged away, embroiled once more in the turmoil of their combat.

Recovering from the nauseating power of her downward spiral, Sophie managed to cast open her wings once more only to realize the verdant expanse of the green hills was rushing up at them at an alarming rate. But directly to her right, looming like a nightmare out of the expanse of dead brown grass that lined its base, raised the hungry charcoal stones of the Dull Wall. Beyond it she could not help but see the boiling vermillion waves of the blackened tar that was the Dark. The sight of the vast madness of tainted magic beyond the barrier struck more fear into her heart than the rapidly approaching ground. The vile tar stirred and crashed against the barrier with renewed vigor as though it had seen her. A blast of fetid heat scorched her cheeks, as a burning wing escaped over the bricks, bringing with it the horrible reek of sulfur. How she hated the Dark.

The sentiment appeared to be mutual.

_Mother, pull up! Pull up!_ Deirdre shrieked. Her daughter's voice and her silent son's waving pulled the brown-eyed witch from her distraction. She was forced to back wing desperately, but still the dry brown grass beneath her rushed upwards.

_Nox, the ground!_ Sophie screamed at the star.

The man-daemon shifted abruptly and seemed genuinely surprised by the approaching hills, as if he had forgotten they were falling. But apparently the other had not been so inattentive. With an agile yet brutally strong movement, the possessed daemon writhed in a way that shifted the advantage of her situation. Door managed to force Nox beneath her moments before they crashed into the ground at the foot of the black barrier, sending up an explosion of indigo feathers which rode a shockwave of turbulence through the otherworld. The Wall trembled violently in its wake.

Door however, wasted no time to take advantage of the fallen star's injury. As she blurred aside, the Dark clung like a veil of sooty gloom to the now wingless grey-eyed daemon. With obsidian talons she ripped the slack form of the luminous being from a crater-like impression in the dead brown grass. Only when she whirled around and slammed the elder star against the ravenous bricks of the Dull Wall did Nox let out a piercing shriek akin to glass shattering. His shout echoed off of the barrier and resounded up into the sky. As the star jolted out of his stupor he flared up into incandescent white fire, struggling violently as the bricks seized a hold of him. But Door quickly snatched back her hand as the Wall began to feast on Nox's magic, and the light fled from the being's translucent mercurial body. The man-daemon became dimmer, and as he grew weaker his humanity returned. Almost instantaneously, a snow-haired mortal sagged in exhaustion from the horrible charcoal flagstones, his grey face pinched with agony.

_NOX!_ The child-woman's piercing scream was deafening, and it blinded Sophie for a moment.

The Silver Sorceress landed hard in her sightlessness, and tumbled gracelessly into a pile of limbs and dissolving feathers as her knees gave. It took her a moment to sense without sight that her daughter had touched down right in front of her, and streaked forward at the daemon's exposed back, furious anger making her rash.

_Deirdre, no!_ She cried desperately, and reached after the child-woman to no avail.

Melting into existence out of the other's back, Danna strode forward with bright grey eyes full of hatred. Door, however, remained motionless, as if she was merely an empty husk. The Daemon Queen stabbed toward the child-woman with the burning silver knife. But the Wallmaker's daughter deftly shrank away in horror as the blade inexplicably repulsed her. She turned to hold Akarshan as far away from the mad woman as possible.

_Let Nox go!_ She demanded, snapping open her wings threateningly as the relentless otherwind tore about them.

_But he feeds the Wall, Deirdre. Don't you want to maintain the balance? _Danna's mocking words echoed cruelly in her mind.

_Listen to yourself, Danna! You once told me that your purpose was to prevent the breaking of the Wall! Killing is not the solution!_ Sophie's voice cut through the cold healer's malice like a burning point of rationality as the Silver Sorceress stumbled to her feet, still half blind in her disorientation.

_Silence! This is your family's fault! The Wallbreaker must die! _Danna snarled, wheeling to point her knife at Sophie. Deirdre immediately sidestepped, slowly inserting herself between the grey-eyed woman and her mother. Akarshan twisted fretfully in her arms as he caught sight of his brown-eyed mother, but his sister could not risk letting go of her twin.

_Didn't Agyrus feed your husband and son to the Wall? _The child-woman drew away the Daemon Queen's attention with a merciless truth._ Mother's right! You're becoming the Wallbreaker, Mrs. Danna!_

_Shut up, you little fool! _The woman screeched, and her voice showed like a ragged crimson thread of pain in her mind; it was clotted with the horrid tar of the Dark. Deirdre could see the pain in her eyes, and knew she had struck a nerve. Whether for good or bad it was unclear, because the cold woman fixed her gaze on Akarshan with such murderous hatred that even the child-woman flinched. _I know what I've seen! He's the Wallbreaker!_

_This isn't you Earin. _Sophie spoke again in a strong convincing voice. She was on her feet now, inching closer to her silver-haired daughter. The sorceress cast a quick glance at Akarshan, who was reaching for her desperately mouthing her name over and over. But she turned her attention back to the mad former healer. _ I can see the Dark in your eyes. It's eating you alive and using you for its own purposes, can't you see that?_

_No! I control it! It serves me! _Danna's gaze faltered just as she shook her head, as though to clear away something that was impeding her thoughts. The heated timber of her voice suddenly sounded uncertain, almost desperate as though she feared the truth of their words. _No! I'm right! I'M RIGHT! DOOR, KILL THEM!_

The chimera suddenly shuddered and spun in place to face them. However, Door remained where she stood, looking small and fragile in the thick gloom of the Dull Wall. Suddenly, the icy grey of Door's eyes faded to endless black.

_No, green mother... They're mine. _Her thin defiant whisper was barely perceivable. The cold woman seemed shocked by the other's answer, and half-turned to regard the tall daemon.

**_I SAID KILL THEM_**. Danna unleashed the full thunderous power of her persuasion on the chimera. In the otherworld the wrath of her magic manifested physically in a great aura of sickly yellow-black fire.

_No… Mine! _The doppelganger replied stronger now, and with her second refusal came a throaty menacing growl.

_Fine! I'll do it myself! _Earin snarled madly.

With that, the Daemon Queen wheeled back toward them. Brandishing the silver blade she streaked forward, made all the more formidable by the daemon magic she stole from the other. Deirdre turned to her mother and held out Akarshan, who Sophie snatched up just as they both realized that Danna had come to a lurching halt. The insane woman writhed in the air as though fighting against something. Suddenly, the former healer clutched painfully at her chest with her free hand, and a twisted cord emerged just beneath her fingers. The strand was made of a twisted snarl of charcoal black and coiled about her like a net, only to be pulled taut where it led back to the other. The chimera held the rope clutched in her talons, and she heaved at the physical manifestation of the bargain that bound her to Suliman's sister. With a screech the grey-eyed woman was yanked off her feet and pulled backwards toward the daemon.

_MINE! _ Door thrummed darkly, pulling faster and faster as she regarded the tattered human with a hungry expression not at all her own.

Earin Danna swiveled on the ground and regained her feet just before the daemon could lay its claws upon her. With an expression of blank terror, the former healer desperately lashed out with the silver knife and plunged the blade into the half-human's heart. The touched spirit gave a violent start and froze, as she regarded the silver knife in her chest with black eyes full of absolute bewilderment. Deirdre convulsed in agony with a silent cry, as her wings dissolved in an instant. The child-woman fell to her knees clutching her chest. In a wild panic Sophie shifted her son and grabbed a hold of her daughter's torn shirt, trying to pull the girl to her. But in that same moment, Door surged forward and phased through the former healer, leaving behind the payment that had sealed their bargain. She emerged unscathed on the other side and tumbled to her knees. Across the dead grass Drie and Door's eyes met with wild relief.

They were alive: the connection was severed!

But the other tore her gaze away and scrambled to her feet as Danna turned slowly, regarding the silver handle of the knife that sprouted from the welling red flower that blossomed on her chest. When she looked up at the spirit that had inhabited her first seer's mirror, Earin's eyes were no longer the cold grey they had been before. They were warmer, almost a hazel; full of sorrowful understanding and overwhelming remorse. Gone from her were the destroying influence of the Dark and the cold taint of its madness. This was not the horrible cold woman that the daemon despised; here was the real green mother she knew when she first came into the two worlds. But Door was stricken as she realized the mortal woman was dying, and that she had killed her.

_I'm sorry… _Earin Danna spoke in her own voice for the first time in ages. _I was wrong._

And then she fell backwards, tumbling against the Dull Wall not far from where Nox still struggled. The ravenous barrier was not having an easy time with the elder star, which had only disappeared to his waist. Nox was watching what had just occurred with distraught violet eyes, and the man-daemon looked as if he was desperately trying to say something. But without his magic he had no voice in the otherworld; besides, no one was looking at him in that moment. Deirdre was madly trying to rush to her other twin, but Sophie still feared the daemon, and barely held back the struggling girl. However, the hungry black bricks had no trouble instantly devouring Danna since she put up no fight. The red-stained silver knife fell into the dead brown grass as she vanished into the Wall, just as Door reached after her in a futile attempt to undo what she had just done.

_No…_ The chimera's whisper turned to a mad scream. Suddenly the otherwind ripped up around her as she was shrouded in the sooty burning gloom of the Dark that crept through the fractured doorway within her. The daemon reached out and hammered her fists on the Dull Wall in blind anguish as she screamed. _NO!_

Where ever she touched the bricks, they ignited like coals in the Dark fire that rushed up around Door. But it was the Wallmaker's blood in the half-human that the hungry barrier responded to. Already compromised by the conflict in the mortal world, the weakened section of the Wall dissolved into crumbling ash and fell. The other stood in the middle of the breech, outlined against the looming vermillion wave of hate that crested above the filthy clouds of ash and smoke that twisted around her.

_DOOR!_ Deirdre screamed, and her doppelganger looked up just as the Dark came crashing down around her.

As the barrier fell, it released its hold on Nox, who spilled out of the collapsing stones in a tumble of shimmering light. As the man-daemon fell into the grass he wore the skin of a star. The luminous being rushed in a crackle of star fire to the Silver Sorceress's side, just as the mother pushed her children behind her. Together the star and the witch erupted into a brilliant aura of silver mercurial power, which they pushed forward into the broken Wall, trying to stop the smoldering flood of tainted magic that surged forward to rush through the breech.

xXx

The star children rocketed back up into the confusion that separated the two worlds, carrying the Wallmaker among them.

As they passed through the thin membrane of nothing that existed between the two worlds Howl experienced the strangest sense of weightlessness. Suddenly, he stared up into the vast twilight that existed in-between. It was nothing, and at the same time it was everything. It was creation and it was destruction: the infiniteness that stretched on into eternity was perfectly balanced. The wizard was filled with an overwhelming sense of peace as the universe spiraled lazily within his mind.

However, Howl was ripped from that place of serenity by a nauseating sense of vertigo as the stars pull him past the beyond, into the vast indigo veil of the otherworld.

But the moment of peace brought to the lanky man a renewed sense of courage and the otherwind burst into life beneath his wings, as he carried himself by his own power. Flying among the shooting stars the wizard and his kin arched across the velvet sky toward the light before the breech. The other star daemons flitted and milled about him anxiously, their mysterious eyes fretfully shifting as they regarded the looming Dull Wall that loomed larger as they fell. Much to his dismay the black barrier continued to crumble as he watched from afar, and as it did many of the ancients around him issued terrified cries. Their voices echoed in his head like the clatter of the chimes in his bedroom, and the spirits plucked at his clothes with their thin arms, anxiously encouraging him to fly faster. But Howl's keen eyes had finally picked out the source of the column of light that dammed off the burning torrent that churning in the breech. There was no mistaking it; only Sophie would wear boots like that with a blue dress.

The raven-haired wizard and his escort of star daemons came crashing down from the sky just as Nox collapsed. The elder star, already drained from his earlier trials, wavered and faded as his kin rushed forward to catch him in a ringing chorus of rolling tumbling shimmering bodies. As he fell, the other wall of light faltered and dimmed, taking on a menacing orange cast as Sophie hunkered down with a grim expression, pushing with all her might as she was slowly forced backwards.

_Papa! _Deirdre cried in shock as the lanky man placed his hand on the top of her head and then her bother's, as he scrambled past in a trailing rush of indigo feathers. The tearful child-woman had been sobbing inconsolably as Shan hugged her; together they huddled in their mother's shadow.

The Wallmaker immediately wrapped his arm around Sophie's shoulder, giving the brown-eyed witch a violent scare. But Howl was not looking at his wife at that moment. With a fey look of concentration, his eyes flickered with a light of their own as the otherwind ripped to life around him, tinged with sapphires and dark indigos. As the sorcerer cast his hand before him the weir of magic snapped back into place, bolstered by the lanky man's sorcery. No longer impeded by the push of the Dark, Sophie twisted her palms as if stretching yarn between them. The blockade lengthened wider but thinner, as the Dull Wall continued to slowly crumble away on the peripheries. Even once the membrane was more stable, they dare not look away lest their distraction weaken the sorcery. But still, Howl hugged her closer, tucking her head under his chin as the Silver Sorceress pressed against him with all her might, all anger forgotten in her joy.

Although her hope faltered as she caught sight of the horror-touched look of severity that replaced the man's normally haughty smirk. The Wallmaker was staring madly at the breech, a fey glint in his marked consternation.

_Can you fix it?_ Sophie's fearful voice welled up in his mind like a frigid spring.

Howl did not reply, but the bleakness in his tense cerulean eyes shook the witch to her core.

_What's wrong, Howl? You fixed it before without even thinking about it; I know you can do it again!_ The brown-eyed witch insisted ardently, her gaze made wild with fear.

_The breech is larger than last time and the Wall has weakened significantly... Besides, I can't fix it as long as she's standing there._

The raven-haired man replied forbiddingly as he narrowed his eyes to stare through the brightness of their magic into the Dark. Confused, the silver-haired mother followed his fierce gaze, and her heart lurched in her chest as she caught sight of a familiar silhouette. Outlined in black against the scorched red-black fire of the madness beyond the Wall was the tall shape of a woman, her short hair full of wild tatters in the fire beneath the surface of the tainted magic.

_That's impossible! _Sophie insisted with incredulous horror. _Danna is dead, the other killed her! _

_That's not Danna._ The Wallmaker replied severely._ It's the Dark and it's wearing Door._

_What is she doing? _The witch demanded, as the figure raised its arms and again the black barrier began to shudder and deteriorate, eaten away into glowing embers of ash. Immediately the two magi cast up their hands, stretching the already precariously thin weir of repelling light.

_The Dull Wall is responding to the Wallmaker's blood in the other. It's crumbling because the taint is telling it to_. Howl explained shortly through his gritted teeth.

But suddenly the star children frolicked around the Wallmaker's children, singing soft serene songs in their mind as they touched their faces and hair with curious hands. Most were fascinated by Drie, although one in particular took a liking to Shan. The little boy forgot his tears and gaped in awe at the ancients, distracted from the impending doom as it played with his hair while pulling curiously at his buttons. But the child-woman reached for the dimmest figure in their group, which a few of their kin carefully supported. Nox managed to come towards her, humming softly as he stretched out the thin tendrils of his starlight hands to take hers. Something passed between the elder star and the Wallmaker's daughter, and the silver-haired girl suddenly flew to her feet. Coming up along side her father, Howl spared a grave sideways glance in her direction as she stared out at the Darkness beyond them. Akarshan gave a start as his sister left and tried to scramble after her, but Nox and his kin held him back.

_I can make her stop! _Deirdre declared to no one in particular, as she took a step forward.

_NO! _Howl shouted vehemently as he turned to stare incredulously at the silver-haired half-daemon, his othervoice echoed tumultuously through their surroundings. In his distraction the red wave pushed forward, causing the silver-blue light to fluctuate.

_Howl!_ Sophie shouted in despair as the weir buckled, and the lanky wizard was forced to throw himself back into the sorcery to keep it from shattering.

_I'm a daemon, Papa. Door will listen to me, I know it. _The child-woman spoke in a voice that did not belong at all to a child. It was heart-wrenching proof of how much his daughter had been forced to give up. _He says that the Wall is too broken to repair easily and that you'll try to fix it using yourself like your parents and the other magi did during the first making. I can't let you do that, Papa. _

_I have a door inside me just like the other does, mother. But it leads there instead of the Dark. _She pointed off at the gently rolling hills that eased into eternity in every which way the otherworld had to offer. _I might be able use the green place to mend the Wall without having to stay with it._

_You stay right where you are, Deirdre!_ Her father insisted wrathfully, knowing exactly what she meant by _might_ and _stay_. But his confident words were tinged with desperation as he cast about for something else to say.

_We'll do this together, cherub! _Sophie spoke up quickly as Howl faltered. _Somehow we'll find a way._

_You're right, mother; we are working together. But without you and Papa holding back the Dark there's no hope of fixing anything. You're the ones that need to stay. _Drie replied in a matter of fact voice. _Besides, Nox said this is the only way. _

Before they could argue with her further, a torrent of otherwind erupted up around the silver-haired girl. She melted out of sight into a portal that opened only for only a mere second beneath her feet.

xXx

In spite of the burning red fire that churned above her like viscous tar-like water, it was almost pitch-black inside the tainted flows of the Dark.

Deirdre could barely breathe as she melted into existence. The air was thick with sulfur and smoke, and the wind within the waves could have scorched the skin from a mere mortal. The crushing force of the hideous madness pressed down on her from all directions, trying to swallow her whole. But the Wallmaker's daughter cast it off as the edges of her being caught fire and burned with a sapphire light. The Dark pulled away from her with an almost audible hiss, and through the scorched gloom she could see the two halves of the broken Wall at her sides. Bits of disintegrating Wall floated about her in the torrent of the dark, burning mid air like ignited charcoal. But the child-woman peered through the chaos with a singular purpose.

Directly in front of her, rooted in place by a great twisting undercurrent of shadowed gloom, was the other.

_Door! _Deirdre shouted with her othervoice, fighting madly through the suffocating atmosphere. Every step felt like she had been mired in tar, and it took every fiber of her being not to give into the overwhelming sense of hopelessness that invaded her like a disease.

Suddenly the chimera's head snapped up, and through the despondent murk the Wallmaker's daughter could see the white face of her twin. Door's expression melted from a look of utter shock to elated joy, only to melt into absolute misery as she threw up her hands as if to ward off her silver-haired twin.

_No, Deirdre! Go away! I can't stop it! _The chimera's voice was thick with terror and frustration, and the half-daemon writhed and twisted as if at war with the churning madness that circled around her. Drie could see that the doorway in the other had been forced open, and the Dark rushed through her like a geyser.

_You don't have to stop it, that's impossible! All we can do is fix the Wall! It will hold back the Dark! _Drie cried hastily, still fighting forward through the viscous madness that suddenly pushed against her with all its might. Almost like it was a living thing, she could hear it hissing and howling a metallic chorus in the distant corners of her mind. The murky eddies condensed thicker around the other, almost possessively.

_The Wall?_ Door almost sounded hopefully. Somehow Drie had reached the chimera. Suddenly the gloom around her dissipated slightly, as the daemon fixed her twin with the full tenacity of her gaze

_Yes! _The child-woman exulted. _The Dark is using you to break the Wall because that's the only way it can get out._

_I told you, I can't stop it… _The murky gloom constricted around Door like a surge of hopelessness that showed tangibly in the dim anguish of her othervoice._ I couldn't stop it the first time it came through me… What makes you think I can make it stop now?_

_We're Wallmaker's, Door! _Deirdre's voice rang like a clear bell through the chaos around them._ Together we can fix it! We have to because if we don't everything will die!_

_What about you? What about silver mother and little brother? _The daemon seemed incredulous.

_Yes… _The silver-haired half-human replied fearfully, her courage beginning to slip as she was faced with what should happen if they failed. _If the Dark gets out they'll be some of the first. Including me._

_NO! _Door thundered.

She towered upwards, seeming to shake off the vice-like grip of the malicious tainted magic that clung to her. The other reached her hand toward Deirdre, as her twin fought madly through the horrible vermillion waves that rushed between them in scorching torrents, trying to rip them apart. But their hands met through the screaming rage of the Dark, and the two halves of the same whole clung to one another. The moment they touched, Drie reached within herself to the ragged doorway that had formed within her after freeing Sophie from the Wall. As she opened the gate, the green hills came rushing through.

It was a different kind of fire that burned her now, passing through her to Door in a brilliant burst of sapphire blue. Unlike the constant bittersweet otherwind that slowly erodes away the fragile mortal substance; the channel of power from the untouched half of the indigo veil tore through Deirdre with the full wrath of a fierce river set free from its dam. Almost instantaneously the child-woman could feel the magic stripping away her humanity, but leaving behind her daemon half. She could feel herself wearing thin and transparent, no longer solid, and yet alive in spite of the changes the swift running magic inflicted on her form. Regardless of the fact that she was upsetting a tenuous balance, Drie held fast to the portal within her, and allowed the wild magic to flood through Door.

_OURS! _The Dark howled through the torrent, its distant enraged screech akin to claws upon glass, as the horrid madness clung to the other.

But the Dark was no match for the ambivalent surge of the untouched plains. The vermillion wave of hate began to roll backwards and all at once was ripped free of the chimera, forced out of the breech and sent crashing into the scorched plains.No longer tormented by the overwhelming taint that had scourged her body, Door's eyes flew open and they were blue once more. However, the twin's face twisted with dismay as she stared at Deirdre and the changes the otherworld wreaked upon the child-woman's body. She was translucent and mercurial like the star daemons that were her distant kin, but weak and overtaxed by the ravages of the green magic. In a flash of intuition, the other knew the price her sister would be forced to pay if she attempted to repair the broken place within her sister and the breech in the Wall. Reaching out with her magic, Door slammed shut the portal inside of Drie. Instantaneously, she redirected the surge of power through the doorway within her, lest the Dark just come rushing back through. In the same moment she let go of the child-woman's hands.

_What are you doing?_ The Wallmaker's daughter screamed in shock, as she felt herself propelled backwards by the daemon's magic.

_Not everything in the two worlds can be fixed, silver sister. _Door replied calmly, her sapphire eyes luminous in the velvet twilight. _But at least I can save what I love most. _

As she reached toward the two sides of the shattered black barrier, the dead brown grass beneath her feet sprouted up viridian and teeming with life. Suddenly, the teeming spring of untamed sorcery within Door surged upwards in a brilliant nova of indigo cobalt light, erupting into the indigo veil overhead through the wide mouth of the breech.

xXx

The Wallmaker's apprentice regarded the inverted view of the otherworld that filled the heavens with absolute horror.

"Airships!" Theresa cried moments before the young wizard saw the lights.

The son of the Silver Sorceress was distracted from the doom written in the sky by the deafening hum of the approaching fleet of sky ships that composed Royal Ingarian Flotilla. The enormous aircrafts sailed slowly over the prone castle like a flock of monstrous buzzing beetles, roving the ground with the yellow spotlights of their myriad eyes. One in particular settled on his fallen home, and the russet-haired boy had to squint through his fingers lest it blind him.

"What's it doing?" Markl shouted to the red-head over the drowning drone of the ship's engines, but the be-speckled young herbalist did not hear him. Suddenly the light shifted away, and the young wizard realized what she was focused on.

"Lord Barimus!" She shouted, pointing at a distant speck of red as she tucked her garden hoe under her and sprang effortlessly into the air. Clumsily, Markl scrambled a loft and sped after her into the gloom of the unnatural darkness as the winged Red Wizard snapped open his wings and tossed something at his nephew.

"Catch!" The Royal Sorcerer shouted over the dwindling hum of the ships, and the brown-eyed boy fumbled to snatch up Suliman's stick as it sailed through the air to him.

"Theresa, I'll need your help to land! Can you carry my weight?" The Lord Councilor called to his wife's apprentice, kicking up great gouts of wind as he back winged powerfully to hover beside the flying healer.

"Of course I can! You wizards are far too skinny!" The green-eyed girl replied in a matter of fact way.

Although she did let out a yelp of surprise as the feather's melted from the Red Wizard, who dropped from the air only to catch a hold of the shaft of the young herbalist's garden hoe. Theresa was forced to pull up on her hoe with all her might to prevent both of them from dropping into a nosedive. Wordlessly, Markl slowly sank from the air along side them, as his freckled friend lowered her mistress' husband to the slanted backyard of the castle. Barimus wobbled unsteadily until his brother's apprentice darted forward to steady him, holding out the twisted staff helpfully.

"You could have given me more warning, Master Barimus!" Theresa's scolding was silenced abruptly as the blond wizard shunned the stick momentarily to pull both children into a rough embrace.

"Are you alright? What happened to the castle?" The Wallmaker's brother demanded, as he drew back to inspect both of them with a serious expression.

"Calcifer disappeared! Markl had to fly the castle to keep us from falling!" Theresa explained in a rush. Barimus seemed quite impressed by that.

"We had a bit of a rough landing," the young sorcerer amended awkwardly, and then continued tremulously as he pointed at the sky, "But Uncle Barimus, the Wall!"

"I know! I know, Markl," The Red Wizard tried to calm the agitated young man, "This is beyond our control."

"The bright light's changing!" Lettie called, pointing at the sky overhead as she clung to the doorframe. The caterer and her family were all clustered in the door that opened onto the veranda, doing their best not to spill forward into the yard. The three in the yard spun to regard the star-like brightness before the still crumbling Dull Wall, the cobalt-white hue of its color starkly contrasted with the black-crimson of the burned cinders that glowered beyond the barrier.

"Oh what a pretty color!" Granny witch exclaimed as she stood on her tip toes to peer over Alex's shoulder. The Royal Sorcerer threw his gaze back to the sky overhead and he considered the fluctuating radiance with a grim expression.

"It's blue and silver… Do you think it's Master Howl and Sophie?" Theresa spoke up hopefully. She fitted herself under Barimus' shoulder after the Red Wizard had turned away and failed to shuffle up the inclined slope. The Lord Councilor did not reply; however, Markl's interpretation of the sky was not nearly as bleak as his uncle's.

"It has to be them," The young wizard insisted, "No one else could hold back the Dark… But what about Mrs. Danna and the prophecy?"

"Does it matter?" Barimus pronounced dismally around his pain, leaning heavily on his foster daughter and his late teacher's stick.

"Of course it does…" Markl began irritably but his words were cut short as a distant sound caused the Hatter family to nearly jump out of their skins.

"Someone's at the front door, dearies. Shall I let them in?" Granny witch called curiously.

But Markl had already shot up the slope and scrambled past his kin, through the dim chaos of the living room to the off-kilter front stairs. Indeed the front door was rattling loudly, and somehow the colored dial above the latch had swiveled to the black mark that led to the otherworld. Without Calcifer there was no way to know for sure what was on the other side of the doorway. Indeed, the young wizard was surprised that the portal still worked without the fire daemon's magic. It appeared the castle still held enough residual magic to keep several of its enchantments intact.

"What is it?" Honey screeched shrilly as she clung to Mr. Hausa, as again the knocking echoed loudly through the living room.

"I don't know!" Markl half shouted back, beginning to become annoyed by the woman's high pitch screams.

"You should answer the door, dearie," Granny witch advised as she seated herself on an overturned pot and fished her knitting out of a pile of ashes.

"No! Don't!" Barimus shouted as he and Theresa reached the veranda doorway at the same moment his nephew reached out and pulled the latch.

But the gateway wrenched open a handbreadth. As it did the constant bittersweet wind of the otherworld came rushing through the gap. Heen scrambled into the castle, followed by a harried teal-colored Calcifer.

The lights in the living room flared into life as the castle slowly righted itself following the return of its power source. But the fire daemon slammed the door behind him and spun to regard his extended family with a look of absolute consternation that melted to a strained expression of relief.


	7. Chapter 7: Mended Fences

**The Broken Wall: Part V of the Wallmaker Saga**

**Chapter 7: Mending Fences**

"Heen! Nice doggy!" The former witch of the wastes exclaimed as the daemon rushed to her feet. The faded old woman scooped up the trembling scruffy animal and rocked him side to side like a baby.

"WHERE DID YOU GO!?" Markl thundered, catching up the fire daemon only to yelp and snatch back his hands as the living flame singed his skin.

"Nice to see you too! And here I was afraid I'd you all smashed to bits," Calcifer crackled crankily as he gyrated before the young wizard's face. "The Wall holds the worlds apart, stupid! When it broke all the daemons got pulled back into the Otherworld. You can't be in two places at once. Honestly, don't you humans know anything!"

"I had to fly the castle!" Markl replied hotly, not comprehending in the slightest anything the fire daemon said.

"Good! Now you see what I have to put up with every day!" But then the spark flared up a healthy shade of orange as he caught sight of Barimus. Wearily, which slow movements that bespoke his pain, the red wizard sat on one of the kitchen benches Theresa quickly righted. Defeat was etched into every line in the blond man's features and the sight sent a chill through Markl's heart.

"Oi! You've got Suliman's stick!" The daemon cried anxiously, "What are you waiting for, you ruddy wizard, go help Howl and Sophie!"

"The lights are changing again! They're getting fainter." Lettie screeched just as a bone jarring tremor passed through the castle, rattling the shelves and dislodging another fleet of pans from the walls.

Milly and Tilly screamed and clambered further into their mother's skirts even as she leaned dangerously out of the veranda door. Alex's large hands found purchase on the back of his wife's apron just as the quake hit. Theresa skittered forward and snatched a hold of the front of Markl's tunic, dragging him out of the path of a swinging lamp that missed his head by inches. But the Royal Wizard's voice cut through even the guttural moans of the world beneath their feet.

"Take a good look out the window, Calcifer," Barimus spoke through the press of his fingers, "This world is already torn apart far beyond Howl's ability to mend."

"That's it then?" Honey demanded in a hoarse voice, still clutching Mr. Hausa as though he were the only thing of certainty that existed in the world.

"Yes… That's it," The red wizard pronounced with bleak certainty.

The expression of utter desolation his golden eyes embodied perfect despair as he bowed his face into one hand. Calcifer melted into an astonished teal hue, shocked to silence by the Royal Sorcerer's reply. The lights in the room dimmed and flickered in response to the daemon's alarm as he dwindled small.

"I don't think I agree, Master Barimus," Theresa spoke up resolutely as she shook off the paralyzing fear the gripped the room like a killing frost. Turning to the Wallmaker's apprentice, whom she still held by the collar, the red-head attempted to clean the ashes from his face with her sleeve.

"Hope is a good thing," She continued evenly, and the freckle faced girl smiled when the russet-haired boy stopped her hands by catching them into his own, "No good thing ever really leaves us completely."

The Red Wizard's head jerked up in surprise to regard his foster daughter just as a blinding flash of light swallowed the world in a super nova of perfect silence.

xXx

Their magic shattered like a thin pane of glass.

As it did Howl snatched Sophie and Akarshan into his arms, turning his back against the impending tide as if he could shield them from the Dark. They were knocked to the ground, plastered into the green grass by a great swelling force that might have crushed the very souls from their bodies. But it passed quickly, only to be replaced by the calm persistent familiar tug of the relentless Otherwind.

But the vermillion wave did not come.

The sapphire-eyed sorcerer was not sure how long he lay there, braced for an evil that was suddenly absent from the surroundings. It was Sophie who brought him back to his senses, suddenly struggling beneath him, pushing at his shoulder as her wide brown eyes fixed with incredulity on something overhead. Dully, following her gaze, and much to his surprise the Wallmaker regarded only the placid velvet firmament overhead. The starless indigo veil waited above, not the horrible mirror of an inverted world on the brink of destruction. Sitting up with his dazed little boy in his arms, Howl turned his eyes back towards the Dull Wall and gaped incredulously.

Where the breech had been was a vast expanse of white stone.

It towered upwards, the alabaster bricks veined with silver that showed like mica shining in the sun. The barrier exuded strength and vitality. Even the once dead grass at its foot now grew green and verdant. That was until the stones faded back into the hungry charcoal crags that disappeared off into the distance. But the tainted remnants of the barrier seemed to shrink from the mended space, as though it new that eventually every last shred of its foundations would be consumed by the purpose of the renewed stones. However, the wonder in the raven haired sorcerer dissolved as he realized what the White Wall had cost him. And this same conclusion was what sent the silver sorceress stumbling to her feet.

_DEIRDRE! _She keened in anguish.

The mother flung herself at the Wall like a feral thing, mad with tears and grief as she attempted to tear herself from Howl's grasp. But he caught hold of her skirts and yanked the witch back into his free arm. Howl crushed her against him and Sophie continued to scream silently for her daughter until the weight of their sorrow rendered them both mute. Akarshan, still and white faced with terror, suddenly stiffened and jerked his head up. Both his parents fell jumped as the little boy suddenly pointed at the marble bricks, his attention fixed with such vehement singularity on something they could not see.

Just then the Star Daemons parted around the Wallmaker's in a great tumbling wave of exuberance. Riding the Otherwind like a flood, they surged forward and crashed against the wall in a tide of shimmering effervescence, only to be forced to recede like any fluid force. But as they fell back, they drew from between the nooks and crannies of the stone and mortar another being spun of light and magic. A little star burst forth from the once dark barrier, reeling forward until it half collapsed on spindly hands and knees before the Wallmaker family. Shan wasted no time squirming like a greased fish from his father's grasp, dashing forward to stand directly in front of the strange spirit.

The star straightened and at once it could be seen that they were the same height, simultaneously blinking blue eyes of identical shade.

Sophie clambered on her knees to her son's side, hugging him to her even as she leaned forward in shocked wonder.

_Deirdre? _The Silver Sorceress's incredulous query was mirrored in her husband as the lanky man materialized at her side. Howl hesitantly reached out to the star, the slow unfolding motion full of the question that had finally found silent words in the brown-eyed woman's Othervoice. The flickering creature swayed from side to side as it took the wizard's proffered palm, and in that moment there was no doubt in their minds that this was their daughter.

Singing a triumphant song of pure crystalline exultation, the star children erupted up into the sky in an explosion of mercurial vapor, trailing their sparkling rainbow garments behind them in unadulterated joy. The worlds were preserved, the Wall mended, and they rejoiced.

But of their kin, Deirdre and Nox remained.

The littlest star suddenly sang out in a bell like voice beyond hearing and abruptly a doorway of clotted shadows stretched out behind the family. Lifting out of the green grass behind the Wallmakers, it towered up over them like the great whirling hand of time.

In a disorienting rush of Otherwind, all at once they were standing on the landing of the castle just beyond the threshold of the magic portal. Howl still held Deirdre by the hand, and though she now existed in another realm, instinctively the sorcerer pulled her toward him. The thin tendril of light melted into solidity as the silver haired child-woman regained her mortal form. Immediately the elder star placed his hand on her shoulder, rising up into his human guise. Nox regarded both Howl and Sophie with vibrant violet eyes full of regret as he shook his head slowly from side to side. Words were not possible for him for he was still in the otherworld, although his meaning was plain enough.

Rage blossomed hot and bright within the Wallmaker and Howl persisted implacably, his grip tightening. Sophie suddenly understood as well, thrusting Akarshan behind her as together they gathered the will of their magic to protest by force if necessary. But the twisted expression of tortured pain that burned across the child-woman's face brought her parents up short. They saw it then, the connection between the half-daemon and the white bricks of the mended Wall behind her, pulled taute nearly to the point of breaking. It was like seeing a ray of sunshine, the hope of the two worlds embodied in physical form. But made horrible in that moment because I represented the price they had been forced to pay. Deirdre smiled then as if to tell them it was alright, casting her eyes to Nox and let her hand slip through her father's.

"NO!" Howl thundered as a blast of the Otherwind slammed him backwards as the door slammed shut.

As it did the mortal realm crashed about the Wallmakers in an avalanche of tumultuous sensations. Leaving them to turn and stare at the incredulous faces of their family, who stood in the shattered turmoil that filled the living room of the flying castle.

xXx

"What's going on now?" Theresa demanded cantankerously in a low voice so as not to wake Akarshan, who was fast asleep in her arms, his little face tucked into the curve of her shoulder.

"I don't know," Markl replied uncertainly, "I'm just guessing from the look on Martha's face, but I bet they're arguing about something stupid from."

The green garbed girl huffed and shifted the sleeping child so she could scoot a steaming cup of tea closer to Barimus. But the exhausted red wizard was oblivious to its presence, and the scrutiny of his wife's apprentice. Sprawled on a couch barely large enough to accommodate his long legs, the golden-eyed man's face was pinched with pain. Suliman's stick leaned against the couch next to him. The Herbalist had nearly squeezed the life from them as soon as they arrived. She had kissed the red wizard with such ardent joy it made Markl turn scarlet. However, that desperate love had melted into cool professionalism as she took in his deteriorated state and forbade from leaving the couch.

Barimus did not argue and seemed glad for a moment to escape the chaos beyond. Indeed, he had said very little after Howl and Sophie had emerged from the otherworld, bringing on their heels the peaceful afternoon sun that dissolved the world of fire and doom had loomed in the sky overhead. But the moment of tranquility was fleeting, and the silver sorceresses' screams of anguish sent the broken castle quaking with her grief. Once again the fury of her magic had chased the family from their home. Granny Witch and the Hatters had gone to Mrs. Fairfax's farm, which had not suffered at all in the recent trials. The Wallmaker had told them in a few quiet words what had transpired beyond the indigo veil. And as he finished, the Wallmaker deposited an uncommonly solemn Akarshan into his brother's arms and stated that Markl should accompany Theresa and Barimus back to the Ingarian capital. The sorrow in his master's eyes left no room for argument and the russet haired boy knew why.

The Daemon Queen was dead, the Wall was mended. But Deirdre had not come back with them, nor had the other daemon.

Finally, after the freckle-faced girl had stared at the blond man for nearly two minutes, she took one of his hands and placed it on the handle of the cup. This seemed to shake the red wizard. He closed his fingers around it and took a deep drink before straightening abruptly, turning an unveiled gaze of suspicion on the young healer.

"No poison today, Master Barimus," She frowned at him seriously, planting her hands on her hips, "The stores in the Healer's Wing were scattered by the wind daemons."

At this the Royal Wizard managed a weak smile, before turning his attention to his nephew. The russet-haired boy was toying with the edges of his patchwork cloak, bent squinting over a perfectly spherical crystal orb that sat on a cushion in the middle of the table in the antechamber. It was the late sorceress Suliman's; luckily it survived the Daemon Queen's attacks and had been retrieved from the wreckage of the palace. The cheerful afternoon sun streaming into the room from the long windows that stretched along the west wall.

"Are the Kings with her?" Barimus' voice was hoarse with fatigue.

"Yes, the Emperor is there with both Prince Justin and King Walden, but it's apparently not of any help," Markl took a slow intake of breath and his eyes pales in color as he cocked his head to the side as if listening, "Nalir says that the Council understands and rejoices in the fact that the Wall is mended."

"Yes, yes… I can hear Nalir as well. The scamp! Did you know he is a mindspeaker? Nevermind, just tell me what the holding issue is?"

"They're still arguing about the daemons," The russet-haired young wizard replied gravely and then flushed in embarrassment, "I've never seen such rude Magi before, Uncle! Martha looks ready to throttle the lot of them."

"Can I go help?" Theresa asked with such earnestness that the Royal Wizard uttered a short laugh.

"I would join you as well, dear one, but that is very _bad_ diplomacy," Barimus sighed heavily and a brooding darkness gathered in his golden eyes. "No… This is nowhere near over, I'm afraid. Our country is in shambles, possibly even those beyond our boarders. The Council will divide over this issue: some will want to retaliate, others will demand reflection but most will drown in the indecision to come."

Listening with ears that reached beyond the room through the crystalline orb, Markl suddenly flinched as he heard his name. His brown furrowed deeply as the young wizard watched through the glass sphere as a fat grizzle-haired magus stood and begin shouting. The image in the globe shifted to show a shocked, white faced young man in black robes and then King Ferdinand, who was tugging on his absolutely bristling beard in consternation. What the Mardan Magi had to say sent a clamor of unrest through the other sorcerers and sorceresses.

"Uncle," The Wallmaker's apprentice began anxiously, as if unsure of what to say. Sensing his unease, Theresa came over and gazed into the glass ball with a frown, "They're arguing about something else now."

"What?" Barimus struggled to sit up.

"Who is to be the heir to the title of Royal Sorcerer." Markl replied, lifting troubled eyes to regard the red wizard, "Apparently the conflict of ascension between Nalir and me."

The injured man suddenly snapped his head to the side, straining to look at the orb. He flushed a furious crimson as he caught sight of Healer Yewin in the glass, the blond man's lips curled back in rage. Within the sphere Martha's expression matched her husband's, and had Peoter not been standing behind her to catch the woman's arm, the herbalist may have strode forward to strike the fellow. The captain of the Wizard's Guard was haggard with grief, his normally mirthful face devoid of any humor. Although apparently his bereavement had not keep the copper-haired man from his duty.

"That conniving bastard!" The red wizard snarled.

Just then Prince Justin stood abruptly, wrath bright in his pale blue-grey eyes as the quarrelsome magus lapsed into deferential silence. Suddenly King Ferdinand began speaking with heated agitation and Nalir's shocked voice repeated the distant words in the russet-haired wizard's mind. Markl spoke them aloud in a daze.

"King Ferdinand promised to recommend Nalir for ascension in exchange that Lady Merra find the Daemon Queen, which she did and now Yewin says our king must honor his bargain. But the emperor says you and Master Howl named me your heir before he made the agreement."

"Uncle?" Markl spoke in a small voice before he raised his eyes to regard his, "That can't be true, can it?"

Barimus looked as if someone had slapped him. The blond man gaped at his nephew for a long moment before he spoke.

"I had no choice but to lie," He began in a voice rough with sorrow. "I was not willing to allow the conniving of the power hungry to decide our furture. Yewin and Merra are trying to manipulate their way into controlling the Council and that I cannot allow that."

"But… But I'm Master Howl's apprentice!" Markl insisted incredulously.

"And I wish you were mine! My selfishness drove me to make that hasty decision and for that I am sorry. I am sorry for you and for Howl." Barimus admitted despondently before glowing pride crept into his eyes, "But believe me when I say I do not regret it. You are the best choice I can make in spite of everything."

It was Markl to gape at the blond man. It took a long time before he regained his voice.

"But, Uncle, what about Master Howl!?"

"He will never forgive me," The blond man whispered suddenly lowered his face into his hands once more, "But we all have prices we must pay."

Suddenly Akarshan stirred in the herbalist apprentice's arms. Theresa had been standing aside mutely listening to the conversation with wide green eyes. She gave a start as and the Wallmaker's youngest son jolted wide awake. But the shock on Shan's face transformed into elation as the little raven-haired boy squirmed out of the red-head's arms. As soon as he plopped to the ground he clambered up onto a chair against the wall.

Directly overhead was a large mirror and within its reflection, in complete defiance of the image it reflected of the room, stood Deirdre.

"Look, brother! Sister came back!" Shan cried in exultation as he pressed his hands against the glass.

Every hair on Markl's body stood on end as the blue-eyed child-woman turned her gaze to smile at him. Barimus gasped as Theresa seized the young man's arm. The tall half daemon was fiddling with one of her braids as she turned back to look straight into her brother's eyes.

"What do you mean Papa's listening to us?" The six-year old spoke aloud as he frowned in confusion.

At that moment the little boy looked over his shoulder and the apparition vanished, but not before leaving another in her place.

They were the same, save for the length of their hair.

But in a blink even she was gone as the latch on the opposite door in the antechambers suddenly clicked and swung open. The Wallmaker entered the room. Howl's blue eyes were solemn as he first regarded his sons and then his brother before turning to stare with a growing look of mild consternation at the empty mirror.

"Papa!" Akarshan squealed as he rushed to his father. The raven-haired wizard laughed lightly and scooped the little boy up onto his hip.

"Where's mommy?" Shan asked curiously, "Is she still sick?"

"At home with Calcifer," The handsome man replied with a smile, "Mommy will be alright, she's just sad that your sister couldn't come home with us."

"But didn't you see Dreidy?" Shan frowned as he pointed at the mirror, "She was in the window just now!"

"No… I didn't see her, but I believe she was there," Howl replied in a voice made thick by some restrained emotion. He avoided looking at the glass as he returned his gaze to the Royal Sorcerer.

Surprisingly, Barimus spoke first.

"You were listening?" The blond man's voice was a whisper.

"To every word," Howl replied evenly. "I may not agree with you, brother, but I will forgive you."

"I don't understand."

"This isn't my choice. It's Markl's." The lanky sorcerer's voice was grim this time as he turned his level gaze toward his silent eldest son. The russet-haired young man simply stared at his father with an expression of wild trepidation bright on his features.

"That's not fair! How can you think to make Markl make such an awful decision!?" Theresa suddenly shouted in fury as she stalked forward shaking her fists, "Shame! Shame on you both, you wizards with your stupid short-sighted decisions. Making Markl choose doesn't solve anything! The Council will still fight over your decision because of Nalir. Why can't we all just share and be done with it!?"

Then the little red-head flushed, remembering she was yelling at two of the most powerful men in Ingary. The herbalist's apprentice suddenly shrank back behind Markl, in spite of the grin on the Wallmaker's face and the look of surprise on the face of her mistress' husband.

"What an excellent suggestion, Theresa. What do you think, brother? Why don't we keep them both?" Howl replied in such a cavalier voice that Barimus continued to stare at him, "Contrary to what you all may think of me, I am not so selfish that I won't agree to a joint apprenticeship. You and I can teach Nalir and Markl together."

"What?" The blond man stammered.

"I'm tired, brother," The blue-eyed sorcerer spoke in a sad voice that could have belonged to a stranger, "And so are you, and for the same reasons."

"We're sick, brother, of watching the worlds depend upon the strength of an individual. I'm weary of watching one person being called upon to bare the burden of sorrow and responsibility for the worlds. We're bitter and angry from seeing the potential of our combined strengths scattered into nothing because our race cannot think of anything but personal power and gain. I will not stand for it any longer. The Council must come together to serve its original purpose, to help all who live in the two worlds. Never before has it been so sorely needed."

"They will not listen to me," Barimus countered lamely, "And I grow tired of trying."

"Then we will make them listen. All of us, working together," Howl's eyes were shining brightly as he straightened and smiled in Theresa's direction. "At least they will certainly be more obliged to try once they realize that Martha's presence is no longer a temporary occurrence."

"What?" The Royal Wizard snapped incredulously.

"I am going to have King Ferdinand strike the confines of the register in the charter of the Council so that mortal, daemon, and magi alike are able to decide the future of our worlds." Howl replied smugly, as if it were a simple thing.

Barimus could only gape at his apprentice brother, for what he proposed would tear to shreds a tradition that had been in place for centuries.

"But Master Howl," Markl spoke up incredulously, "What daemons would come here after all this?"

"Calcifer of course! Couldn't you just see him demanding we call him _Lord Councilor_ at home?" The sapphire-eyed sorcerer grinned roguishly, "Besides, the Magi have to get over this phobia of the ancients! It's been too long since they were reminded that they themselves are part daemon."

"What about Deirdre and… the Other?" Theresa asked with cautious curiosity, turning her eyes from the mirror to the Wallmaker. At the sound of the name Howl's mirth dissolved into the thin line of a smile that plastered to his face like a mask.

"I do not know what fate has in store for my daughters. But I know they will be instrumental in the future of our worlds."

"How can you know that they will listen to you, Howl? They barely accept their own royalty. What will they do when you bring Calcifer here?" Barimus began in consternation, his misgivings bleeding through his words as doubt gathered around them in the shadows.

"I don't expect this to be easy," Howl grinned as if it were all a game and he couldn't wait for it to begin, "We're Wallmakers, and if they won't listen to you, me, or even their Kings, by Hell itself they will listen to Sophie."

xXx

Sophie stood staring at the boiling kettle for a moment before she hooked it off of Calcifer's flame with the end of her spoon.

A moment before she had been lost in thought so deeply the pancake in the pan might have burned if the living flame in the grate had not sidled out from under the skillet. The glowing ember regarded her with large compassionate eyes, although kept his questions to himself. It was the sound of doors opening and closing overhead and boots on the castle stairs that had drawn the brown-eyed mother witch from her brooding thoughts.

"I smell breakfast!" Shan cried as he tromped down the stairs dragging by the hand his bedraggled father, who was still red eyed from sleep. Howl had been at Kingsbury well into the dark hours of the night, as he had been for the last week since they had come back from the Otherworld. Sophie had attempted to let him sleep in this morning, although apparently their son had other plans.

"Can we have some of Mrs. Fairfax's honey in our tea? Can we, can we?" Akarshan was positively vibrating on the kitchen bench as the silver sorceress brought over the kettle.

"Oh, what a greedy little boy," Granny witch chuckled from beside the hearth. She paused from fixing silver tassels onto a blue scarf to pat Heen's head where it rested on her knee before shuffling over to the table with dog in tow.

"I don't think you need anymore sugar, Shan," Markl grumbled irritably as he tromped slowly down the stairs. As always in the morning, his unruly hair was horizontal, as if willing the bed his head had left behind to materialize magically. Howl grinned at his eldest son over his tea.

They both had been out late at Kingsbury last night.

Although the Wallmaker's smile faltered as he caught the vacant expression on his wife's face as she stared at the empty spot on the end of the bench.

Deirdre's spot.

Instantly he caught up her hand, kissing it lightly before lacing his fingers through her own. Sophie smiled at him weakly, but the warm mellow light in her chestnut eyes had been restored once more.

"Papa, papa, papa, papa!" Akarshan began bouncing on the bench once again, making it creak in protest, "Can I try the spell this morning?"

"You're getting too big to be jumping on stuff, kid!" Calcifer snapped from the grate irritably amidst curls of smoke, "One day you're gonna rattle with castle apart."

But Akarshan wasn't paying attention to the fire daemon; his attention was fixed on the front door. There was a new color swatch on the dial, a shiny silver-blue that reminded the little boy of starlight.

"Do you remember how many times to knock?" Sophie asked seriously, returning to the hearth to continue doling out pancakes.

"Yes," The little blue-eyed boy replied saucily, planting his hands on his hips much in the same way the witch did when she was being contrary, "And the pattern too!"

"Oi! Have some respect when you talk to your mother!" Cal crackled from under the skillet, sending curls of smoke up into the chimney. But the brown-eyed mother was smiling as she continued cooking, not bothering to look up as she spoke next.

"Go ahead then, and get the honey out too," the silver sorceress pronounced permissively, "I know how you both are fond of sweets."

"Yay!" Akarshan crowded and jumped down from the table.

Thundering over to the front door, he turned the dial to silver then knocked once, twice, and three times before pulling the portal open, leaning out into the rushing Otherwind before calling at the top of his lungs.

"Sister! Time for breakfast! And we get honey too!"

**The End**

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**Authors Note:**

Would you believe that The Wallmaker Saga began as a one chapter short story? Probably not…

While putting word to page for this story, I continually announced to my partner, "Just one more chapter. I swear, there will be just one more chapter." However, sometimes a story will demand that more be told, even when it has come to a close. Such was the case with Howl's Moving Castle , such is the case with this fan fiction. Yes, its long, _really long_, but it needed to be in order to explain what needed to be told.

I first saw Howl's Moving Castle in a bargain theater. Being that I was in the middle of my last two quarters of graduate school, I had no idea what it was about, other than the fact that is was the most recent Miyazaki film. Boy was I in for a surprise.

I was floored. Needless to say I forced my partner to go back to the theater three times before it finished its run. Then I bought the art book, the DVD, the soundtrack, and voraciously devoured Diana Wynne Jones' original novel.

Obsessed? No, simply immersed. I dipped as far into the world of Ingary in pursuit of the tight anxiousness that clung to me. I wanted to understand what had touched me so deeply. Although I enjoyed Jones' novel, honestly I wasn't satisfied.1 I wanted more. And so I dug deeper. I scoured the internet for fan art, doujinshi, and read scores of other fan fictions. But still I hadn't reached a point where I could articulate what was bothering me.

I felt cut off, nigh abandoned. Like there was so much more to be said by the characters, so much more to be explained and explored. Furthermore, I wanted more of what Miyazaki portrayed in his film.

Say it with me now, _Hayao Miyazaki is a genius_!2

I watched all of my Studio Ghibli films again in addition to my bi-weekly dose of Howl's Moving Castle . I did more than watch, I studies his style. Miyazaki 's stunningly visual methodology provides a mature and enormously successful means of storytelling that is at once parsimonious and opulent, uncomplicated and yet profound. I realized that I wanted my own chance to "Return to Oz," to discover what had happened to the characters whom I missed so keenly. Furthermore, I was itching to explain the tantalizing tidbits that were offered and yet never elaborated upon in the movie.

That and I just love Sophie Hatter. Don't get me wrong, I love Howl too, but he's already got a gaggle of fans. I identify with her unlike any other character I have encountered. Furthermore, the rest of the Jenkin's family needs a bit of lauding and I'll gladly be their spokeswoman.3

But beyond hero worship, I discovered that I wanted to be able to write as articulately in words as Miyazaki was able to put into his images. That's a tall order, and one I'll probably never be able to achieve. Nor would I ever want to emulate another person's style entirely. However, I simply wanted to explain that it was Miyazaki-san who brought me back to writing. That and Sophie.

Besides this fan fiction, I've only ever finished one story and it was a monster as well. It was an epic fantasy well over 500 pages. I never gave it a title. That story, along with countless other half started fan fictions and original works, was destroyed when my 1400cs Macintosh laptop crashed and burned in the late 90s.

Was I a good monkey and did I back them up? Nope! Stupid, stupid, sad little monkey…

I probably could have paid for tech support to salvage the data, but at the time I was a furious 16 year old so destroyed, so angry at myself for foolishly trusting in the infallibility of technology, that I gave up writing entirely until the Wallmaker Saga.

However, after finishing this story, I launched into my first piece of original fiction that I actually intend to write, illustrate, and self publish. _Burned by the Sun_ is about a 500 year old immortal man from India who meets a blind woman at the Seattle Public Library. She changes his life, he changes hers, and for better or worse they're stuck with each other. Thus far I've finished two of the four books I plan for the series, and I'm backing them up religiously.

That is what Howl's Moving Castle gave me, that is what this fan fiction allowed me to regain: my voice as a writer, as corny as that sounds. Perhaps in the future, after I finish my other story, I plan to write another fan fiction based in the Wallmakers' world called The Kindred Cycle. It will take place six years after the end of this story. Let's see if I can do it.

Regardless of anything, thank you ever so much for reading. It really does mean the world to me.

~Lady Librarian

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1 Diana Wynne Jones fans, please don't kill me! I'm not making a sweeping judgment here, just describing my preference as a way of explaining my motivations.

2 _Über-fan-girl-gush-activation-power_! Can you blame me!? Admit it, you've done the same thing at some point in your life.

3 Thank you Miyazaki , for another great female character with a backbone, a brain, and a decent set of clothing! Who really wants to cosplay in a spandex mini-skirt? Not me!


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